Cat Ballou | | Cast : | Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin | | Director : | Elliot Silverstein | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 24, 1965 | | DVD Released Date : | June 03, 2003 | | Language : | English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Portuguese (Subtitled), Thai (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 09, 2005 | | Summary | I will not inflict myself on you further | Content
 | This movie combines the seriousness of western with light humor to create a movie that nearly holds a niche by itself. Catherine "Cat" Ballou is an innocent school teacher returning home to the family ranch, where she finds that her father is slowly being driven off the ranch. She also encounters characters during her return home and on the family ranch that are quite unusual.
Initially Catherine (Jane Fonda) plays a complete innocent. We meet Catherine on a train, where she encounters two men, one, Clay Boone (Michael Callan) is in handcuffs. The other is a drunken preacher named Jed (Dwayne Hickman), who carries a bible that has hidden attributes. Jed's often repeated line is "Ma'am, I apologize for my disgusting condition and I assure you I will not inflict myself on you any further." Soon Catherine finds herself in her delicates with Clay Boone next to her as he makes his escape from the sheriff and leaves the train, stealing a kiss from beautiful Catherine in the process.
On her return home, Catherine quickly realizes that something is wrong. The cattle and horses are gone, and everything appears run down. Native American Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini) is now working for her father. Jackson behaves in a most uncharacteristic fashion compared to the typical stereotype of Native Americans as usually portrayed in the 1960s. Jackson frequently makes comments on things white men usually think about Native Americans, with the point typically being that they are wrong. Soon Clay Boone and Jed also show up, and Catherine begs them all to protect her father from noseless killer Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin). In spite of Catherine's best efforts Strawn cold-bloodedly murders her father. Soon Catherine is being thrown off the family ranch.
To help protect her father, Catherine wrote to gunfighter Kid Shelleen (Marvin, in a second role), sending him $50 as a retainer. When Shelleen shows up it turns out that he is a drunkard. However, having read a number of stories about the famous Kid Shelleen, Catherine retains faith in him.
Soon Cat is encouraging the others to rob a train to get back at those who harmed her father. When the robbery nets far more than expected, Sir Harry Percival (Reginald Denny) sends Strawn after Cat, initially to encourage Cat to return the money. When Kid Shelleen realizes that Strawn is about, he sobers up quickly, and in an excellent series of scenes, transforms from a drunken slob into a genuine gunfighter. After Kid Shelleen and Strawn take care of their business, Cat goes to talk to Sir Harry Percival to get him to sign a confession that he ordered her father's death. When he refuses, the gun goes off and Cat ends up in jail, on a trip to the gallows, once more looking heart-breakingly beautiful and innocent.
We have musical narrators throughout this movie, in the form of Professor Sam the Shade (Nat King Cole) and The Sunrise Kid (Stubby Kaye).While the pair are occasionally distracting, the songs are generally good, and are often used to introduce the upcoming scene. This appearance was Cole's last, as he passed away several months before the release of the film.
There are several standout performances in this movie, including Jane Fonda's. However, the best performance is that of Lee Marvin in the dual roles. Lee Marvin was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1966 for his performance. He also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best Foreign Actor, the Silver Berlin Bear at the International Berlin Film Festival, the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy, the Laurel Award for Male Comedy Performance, and the National Board of Review award for Best Actor. In total, this movie received 12 nominations for various awards and won 10 awards. If there had been such an award, the horse Marvin used near the end of the film should have received an award as well, as the horse appears to look as down and out as the horse's rider.
This movie does not have the raw and riotous humor of "Blazing Saddles." The book on which this movie was based was a serious western. The humorous elements were added to change the tone of the movie. The humor is not as subtle as the humor in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." However, there are numerous places where the script gets a smile, and there are several worthy of a laugh.
This DVD contains a number of extras of varying value. The "Legend of Cat Ballou" may be the best feature. The audio commentary is interesting, if you like hearing nostalgic memories of how a movie was made.
One small detail I noticed. Kid Shelleen sang "Happy Birthday" at one point in the movie. The lyrics for "Happy Birthday" were not written until the next century, and each time I see that scene I must admit I am slightly distracted by the relatively glaring inaccuracy. There are other inaccuracies, but they are typically more subtle.
I originally saw this movie in 1965 when it was released. I am surprised and pleased that the movie has aged well. While some recall Jane Fonda with distaste for her behavior a few years later, here Fonda is beautiful and perfect for this part. Lee Marvin reminds us all of why he was considered a great actor. If you consider yourself a fan of westerns, or Lee Marvin, and if you liked movies like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Blazing Saddles," and "Two Mules for Sister Sara," I think you will enjoy this one as well.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 04, 2005 | | Summary | Pleasant and well-intentioned | Content
| An innocent schoolteacher (Jane Fonda) returns home only to witness her father's murder and the theft of his farm by an unscrupulous businessman. Seeking revenge, she assembles her own gang and cheerfully embarks on a life of crime. Lee Marvin, in a dual role as the drunken former gunslinger Kid Shelleen and the cold, noseless assassin Tim Strawn, is the best thing about this film. The rest of it is a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and a half but just doesn't have the laughs to make it a first-rate comedy. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 25, 2005 | | Summary | Very Funny; Great Marvin | Content
| I really only knew Lee Marvin as a tough un-emotional army officer in movies like 'Dirty Dozen' and the 'Big Red One'. Here he plays a very drunk cowboy helping out a young woman (Fonda) who lost her father because the people in the town are after his farm. His role her is very funny and also really good and he deservedly got the oscar for this performance.
Jane Fonda is very young here and plays a surprisingly comical role as a well educated woman who prefers to read dime-novels instead of Tennyson. Everything she does she even gets out of these novels.
The entire movie is funny, dialogue is great and they make fun of a lot of typical western stuff.
A special mention has to be made of Nat King Cole who, with someone else, acts as a kind of narrator of the story, but more like a bard/troubador who sings the story. The movie came out after he died unfortunately.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | Wonderful western film spoof, with an amazing soundtrack too | Content
| Cat Ballou is a movie spoof unlike any other, and a great parody of the Western film genre. Jane Fonda appears in one of her most playful film roles ("Barbarella" is another light and funny Fonda classic), and Lee Marvin gives one of his finest film performances (he won his Oscar for his dual roles). Add to this mix a wondrous soundtrack, with Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye as minstrels of sorts who stroll and sing throughout, making the film almost seem like a musical; an outstanding supporting cast including Michael Callan (who later appeared on TV's "One Life to Live"), and Dwayne Hickman (TV's Dobie Gillis), and the result is this hilarious, thoroughly entertaining film that was nominated for five Academy Awards (Marvin was the sole winner).
Catherine Ballou (Fonda) is a recently graduated-from-training schoolteacher returning home to live with her father on his ranch, but he is gunned down upon her arrival. She enlists the help of a loyal ranch-hand, a couple of outlaws, and most notably, a has-been alcoholic gunman by the name of Kid Shelleen (Marvin) to help her get revenge. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable film that still stands up today, and Lee Marvin stealing the entire film in his amazing dual role performance as both Tim Strong and Kid Sheleen. Lee Marvin alone makes the film well worth seeing.
The dialogue is great. Take this exchange as an example:
Jackson Two-Bears: "Kid, Kid, what a time to fall off the wagon. Look at your eyes."
Kid Shelleen: "What's wrong with my eyes?"
Jackson Two-Bears: "Well they're red; bloodshot."
Kid Shelleen: "You ought to see 'em from my side."
I was thrilled when the widescreen special edition of this long-time favorite of mine came out in 2003, and on DVD. I have the soundtrack on vinyl, but I have always wished that it would come out on CD; Nat King Cole is one of my all-time favorite singers, and his rendition of "They'll Never Make Me Cry" always makes me...anyway. This film still hasn't lost any of its humor or fun with the passing of time, and stays on my personal "top ten list" of great comedies.
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| Rating | | | Date | August 22, 2004 | | Summary | Lee Marvin at his best | Content
| The late Lee Marvin was a very versatile actor, as demonstrated in this motion picture. He much deserved the academy award for his dual role, playing both the alcoholic gunman, Kid Shelleen, and the evil gunman who is his opponent. He said later that it was a fun role that did not take much of his time.
The story is set during the time of the railroad robber barons. They acquired needed right-of-ways by whatever means. When Cat's father is killed by the railroad's hired gun, she hires Kid Shelleen, sight unseen, and has to get him into shape. They dispense their own form of justice, but the law is on the side of the railroad. The motion picture has many memorable scenes that will stick in your memory.
Lee Marvin's performance made this a classic motion picture. Jane Fonda plays Cat, but without Lee it might have been a so-so film. |
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