Cat Ballou [Blu-Ray]

GREAT MOVIE
TRULLY GREAT MOVIE –

Fun Fun Fun
I’ve always loved the Cat Ballou movie and recall seeing it many times over the years, but I only just now purchased the DVD. The movie has a great cast, headed up by a young Jane Fonda and others who were just starting or who were in the prime of their careers. Lee Marvin won an Oscar for his work, even though he was only in 2/3rds of the movie. That said, he played two very different roles and was included in a photo that had everyone talking back in 1965 when the film was made. The famous picture has one of his drunken characters leaning against a building, nearly passed out, while atop his horse. The infamous part of the photo, though, is the pose is that the horse trainer coaxed that horse into by giving him lots of sugar (so I’ve read). The horse was actually crossing his front legs, so that the horse appears drunk, too. It’s a fabulous shot, so much so that at the Oscars when he won, Marvin didn’t thank his co-workers, but he thanked the horse!At any rate, this movie is an off-beat western comedy that includes awesome musical narration by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye. Those two tell the story of Cat Ballou very entertainingly. It’s a story of vengeance and romance as Cat (Fonda) goes after the person responsible for her father’s death and ends up falling in love. Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman provided much of the comedic elements. These two performers got together to provide commentary for the movie and they were a hoot. They told stories about making the movie and talked about the actors and how it was working with one another. To me, they seemed honest and respectful. They laughed a lot and apparently have remained good friends over the passing decades. They teased each other a lot about their performance in the movie and other things. They kept in time with the movie, talking about the making of it as they remembered it. I really enjoyed hearing what they had to say.There is a feature on the making of the movie and a trailer for it, as well as trailers for other movies For me, the commentary makes me a happy buyer because Callan and Hickman truly did enjoy themselves and pass on whatever information they could to viewers.

Despise Jane Fonda but LOVE this movie
Lee Marvin steals the show! If you’re a Lee Marvin fan you have to see this movie. Plus the theme song, sung by the incredible Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, is an ear worm. 🐛

5 Star
Great movie!

Nostalgia. One of the most important movies ever. Lee Marvin won deservedly best actor award. One of Jane Fonda ‘s best one of my favourite singers Nat king Cole died after making this movieI was 15 in 1965In my latter yearsMy father watched game shows and golf tournaments. Nothing else. Never went to the movies. But he watched my VHS copy of “ Cat Ballou” Over and over. There are movies better “ the great Escape” “ gone with the wind” “ Ben Hur” etcBut l think my father was rightThis movie is special. Own again. Lizard

DE BON VIEUX SOUVENIR

I always liked this 1965 western comedy and recently I was pleased to see that it didn’t age – at all! Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda) is a very respectable young lady who studied hard to become a schoolteacher and is returning now by train to Wolf City, Wyoming, near which her father, Frankie Ballou (John Marley), owns a ranch. After the voyage which is a little bit more eventful than she expected, she arrives home, just to find that her father is in serious trouble. Somebody wants to chase Frankie Ballou from his ranch and a terrifying professional killer, Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin), known for his legendary skills with gun – and also for his fake nose… In order to protect her father, she hires another legendary gunfighter, Kid Shelleen (also Lee Marvin) – but once the latter arrives, she starts to have doubts if it was really wise… And then the film really begins…The treasures of this film are many, beginning with Jane Fonda, who is at her most beautiful here. The narration is made in songs and the narrators, very much present on the screen, are two – Professor Sam the Shade, played by comic Stubby Kaye and especially Sunrise Kid, played by Nat King Cole in person. A rather clueless cattle rustler and his surprisingly young, insanely happy and extremely “zen” uncle add a lot to the show, as does also an assimilated, educated and very well spoken Indian, named Jackson Two Bears.But THE greatest asset is of course Kid Shelleen (“Then there came to town, a gun deadly and frightening / A gun quicker than lightening, fastest gun you’ve seen. / It was the gun in the hand of Eli ‘Kid’ Shelleen.”). Lee Marvin got a very deserved Oscar for playing this absolutely U-N-F-O-R-G-E-T-T-A-B-L-E character! I am quite certain that if Nat King Cole didn’t register his immortal hit already in 1951, he would do it in 1965 in tribute to Kid Shelleen – although the rhythm would be probably a little bit less pop and a little bit more country…)))This is a good, merry, fast paced comedy, skilfully parodying many of the most beloved western clichés: desperados, sheriffs, train robberies, gunfighters, wanted posters, six shooters, frontier justice, etc. There is nothing serious in this film and that is another of its treasure – if a remake was ever done, it should begin with Robbie Williams singing “Let me entertain you” in a country version…))) A recommended viewing. ENJOY!