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I watched this movie at least 47 years ago. I am positive about that because I was still a bachelor then.

It was a parody of Western movie with all the usual tropes of the small town, like saloon, sheriff’s office, and so on.

What was special is that, for some reason I do not remember, the inhabitants had dug many tunnels under the main street extending below many buildings, too.

I do not remember what happens during most of the movie, but at the end there is a cavalcade (or maybe a cattle rush) and most of the town collapses into the tunnels.

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This is Paint Your Wagon, a 1969 musical comedy western starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin and Jane Seberg.

Eastwood and Marvin's characters work out they can collect more gold dust that is spilled between the floorboards of saloons than actually panning or mining for the gold themselves. They build a network of tunnels under the town to collect it.

The climax of the movie is the network of tunnels collapsing. The collapse is triggered by a bull getting into the tunnels damaging the tunnel supports.

Your recollection of the events is pretty good, I am 99.9% sure this is the movie you are describing. Based on a stage musical by Lerner and Loewe the songs are pretty good, but the singing of Marvin and Eastwood leaves a little to be desired!

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  • I'm sure it is quite cheesy (and the humor perhaps outdated by today's standards). Some of the singing is also terrible, but I enjoyed it as a kid and I have fond recollections of watching it on TV. The collapse sequence has some pretty good practical effects. Commented yesterday
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    Wow, I always thought the Simpsons reference to Paint Your Wagon was just inventing the movie wholesale - interesting to finally learn after nearly 30 years that it's a satire of a satire. Commented yesterday
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    @Alfred it has a lot of non-musical action and dialog - the story is not told entirely in song, it just has a selection of musical numbers in it. In support of this being the correct movie we have some distinctive points: the tunnels, the town collapsing, the cattle being involved in the collapse, the gold dust - and even the time-frame of it being prior to 1975 fits quite well, as well as it being a parody/comedy. I would be surprised if another movie came close to matching your description. Commented 22 hours ago
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    I would read the Wikipedia plot summary - as there are several very distinctive plot points - including Lee Marvin's character bidding-on and winning the younger wife from a Mormon who comes to the town, and ending up in a polyandrous relationship with her and Eastwood's character, as well as the town hijacking a stagecoach of prostitutes to come and work there. Commented 21 hours ago
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    OMG I never realised the Simpsons parody was actually just ... a real film Commented 16 hours ago

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