When All Else Fails, Rob a Train

The 1965 film Cat Ballou is one of those films that has it all. Though the genre it settles into is definitely Western, Cat Ballou has elements of comedy, drama, and still remains a family film. Directed by Elliot Silverstein, the screenplay for the film was written by Walter Newman that was based on a novel written by Roy Chanslor.

The film stars Jane Fonda as Catherine "Cat" Ballou, who is traveling home to Wolf City, Wyoming after spending time at teacher's college. She is going to meet her father Frankie Ballou (John Marley), a rancher, but on the train there, she aids in the escape of Clay Boone (Michael Callan) from the sherrif transporting him while Boone's Uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman) distracts the sheriff. When Cat arrives home, she finds out the local government is trying to take away her father's ranch, which her father works with the help of Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini). The goverment has sent out a murderer-for-hire with a silver nose name Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin). Clay and his Uncle Jed come to help Cat and she also hires legendary gunfighter Kid Shelleen (also played by Marvin) to help. Unfortunately, the years have not served Shelleen well and he is down a drunken mess who can't even hit the side of a barn when he shoots. When silver-nosed Strawn kills Cat's father, it is up for her and her four accomplices to bring justice to Wolf City before the noose literally tightens around their own necks.

The film's plot is narrated by two "Shouters" known as Professor Sam the Shade and The Sunrise Kid, played by Nat 'King' Cole and Stubby Kaye, who with their banjo, guitar, and Western ballads, serve as a sort of Greek chorus for the movie, laying out the plot and mixing in a little of their own opinions about what is going on. Cole died of lung cancer before the film was released. Lee Marvin won an Oscar for his part in the film, mainly do to a comedic rough riding scene in the film. When he accepted his award he thanked "a horse someplace out in the valley".

Though this film is not particularly well-known or high on the popularity meter, it did manage to rank #10 on AFI's List of Greatest Western films. An article you can read here talks about a group who tried to track down the filiming locations for this movie and their own adventures in the American West. The blogspot No Smoking in the Skullcave has a review of the film, which can be read here. All in all, Cat Ballou is a great film full of comedy, suspense, and all of the horseriding, gunfighting action a good Western requires. As a special treat, here is a trailer that gives a brief synopsis of the film: