Cat Ballou

Cat Ballou
1965 - Columbia
Directed By Elliot Silverstein



SYNOPSIS
Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) is a school teacher. When her father is killed by gunman working for the railroad eager to take his land, she forms a gang and decides to rob a train with their payroll on board. She hires a famous (and perpetually drunk) gunslinger (Lee Marvin) an Indian (Tom Nardini,) and a wanted man (Michael Callan) and his uncle (Dwayne Hickman.) Ballou is caught and sent to be hanged for the murder of the head railroader.



MY THOUGHTS

Cat Ballou is a silly and enjoyable western parody.

The plot is a simple revenge one and it works for the film. As a parody, it works to have a simple and common plot to help work its magic, and there's been many revenge plots to poke fun at over the years. The script contains many great one-liners:

Cat: They're trying to drive him off his ranch! They put manure in his well... they made him talk to lawyers!

or

[after a drunken Kid Sheleen shoots at a target on the barn]
Clay Boone: He did it! He missed the barn!

These help to lift the film beyond your everyday comedy.

The use of Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole as a singing sort-of dual Greek chorus/ narrator role keeps the film from becoming too serious or believable. They add humor whenever they pop up. They have great singing harmony together too.

Jane Fonda is great in one of her first lead roles. She's beautiful and you can easily guess why all the guys are interested. She has the strength to command them even if she wasn't so hot.

Lee Marvin won an Oscar for his dual role as the drunken gunslinger and his opponent. Marvin plays a very silly drunk and is a delight to watch, though it's somewhat of a surprise that this was an Oscar worthy performance, though it's fun keep your eye on him when the action is elsewhere. There are many laughs to be had in watching his reactions. The Oscar may have come since he so successfully plays so far against his usual hard-ass type here.

Tom Nardini generates many laughs as the Indian. This film definitely has a more modern take on Native Americans, and there's much more PC dialogue on race relations, which is refreshing and creates more humor.

Cat Ballou maintains a level of silliness that would certainly appeal to anyone, even those leery of westerns.