كات بالو

A slightly amusing comedy. Slightly. Or as another reviewer on this site put it: forgettable, if in some respects funny. Sort of. And all the more forgettable in that it features some highly talented actors and one genius singer. All of whose performances are mediocre because the play itself is so mediocre. A film which would by now be entirely forgotten if it had not, by some evil miracle, won a Best Actor Oscar. And thereby hangs a tale, because that Oscar will be remembered for eternity as by far the most undeserved Oscar ever awarded. The other nominees for Best Actor were Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker, Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, Laurence Olivier in Othello, and Oscar Werner in Ship of Fools. I challenge anyone of sound mind to see any of those films and then disagree that all four were stellar performances by transcendently talented actors. (Even if I believe, as I do, that Olivier's Othello was an indefensible interpretation of what Shakespeare wrote, it was a hell of a job of acting.) If you imagine that Lee Marvin's performance in Cat Ballou touches any of its four competitors with a ten-foot pole, you could imagine anything. True, film producers can be stupid. They can come up with sticks like Heaven's Gate, Dune, and the Branagh Frankenstein, and promote them as classics for the ages. They can fail to cast Angela Lansbury as the title character in Mame, or Jason Robards as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh, or Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady, even when each is available to reprise the stage role. They can conceive the idiotic idea of metamorphosing great TV series into so-so films by kidding themselves that someone other than David Janssen or Phil Silvers or Peter Graves(respectively) can play Richard Kimble or Sergeant Bilko or Phelps. They can and did do all these things. Why, one year they even nominated the title number from What's New Pussycat for Best Song! But the nominating committee that put this perfectly average (if that) B-grade film in the running with five such classics deserves the fate of Ixion. You can quote me.

A good and nice movie concerning a school teacher named Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) , when the family farm is being threatened by the railroad she becomes a bandit to avenge her father's (John Marley) death , creating an outlaw group formed by a motley and butcher team ( Michael Callan , Tom Nardini and others) . Later on , she engages a boozy gunfighter (wonderfully interpreted by Lee Marvin) and they 'll take on a number of villains and other nasties (led by Reginald Denny) that have a hired gun , a murderer with an artificial nose ( also played by Marvin). A gen-u-ine movie first! A way-out whopper! A funny movie? You bet it is...! It's That Way-Out Whopper Of A Funny Western...A She-Bang To End All She-Bangs! . Cat Ballou Is All A Ball! .Is this the way to make a funny movie...? You bet it is! It's a bemusing western with adjusted runtime in which there's humor , tongue-in-cheek , spoof , irony , shootouts , it's fast-moving and that's why isn't boring but funny . Lee Marvin won a deserved Oscar Academy Award for his double playing as a drunken , sympathetic cowboy and his twin , an odious , ominous killer , as Marvin is the best . The support cast is awesome , thus appearing habitual Western secondaries : J. C. Flippen , Arthur Hunnicut and Bruce Cabot . While Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye play splendidly two singing minstrels . Frank de Vol (Robert Aldrich's usual musician) soundtrack is jolly and lively .The film was well directed by Elliot Silverstein , he will subsequently achieve great success with ¨A man called horse¨. Rating : Better than average. Well worth seeing. . Essential and indispensable watching for Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda fans.

Cat Ballou's significance in film history is not the quality of the film itself, though it's a pretty funny piece of work. It's because it vaulted Lee Marvin up from the ranks of featured players and made him a star with an hysterical Oscar winning performance. It's also the only time in film history that anyone won an Oscar for a dual role. Marvin is featured as deadly contract killer, Jack Strawn and as his alcoholic brother Kid Shelleen. The brothers get into a range feud and opposite sides. An eastern conglomerate headed by Reginald Denny is putting the squeeze on John Marley right at the same time as his daughter Jane Fonda in the title role is coming back from eastern finishing school. Marley and Fonda have a hired killer strong arming them, so at the suggestion of a curious gang of friends she's developed, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, and Tom Nardini, she goes and gets her own outlaw. Of course the dueling Marvins do have it out and I think you can guess who won. Sometimes it's easy to forget about some of the others in Cat Ballou because of Marvin's Oscar. Jane Fonda looks like she's having a great old time, satirizing certain themes that are sacred in Hollywood westerns. She plays her role as the budding Calamity Jane absolutely straight and lets the comedy fall around her. One favorite I have from the film is Hollywood veteran Reginald Denny. In the old days he was usually a rival or best friend to various leading men in the Hollywood English colony. He looks like he's having one grand old time playing the rakish Harry Percival the chief villain of Cat Ballou. The film is helped along with those singing narrations by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye. At one time Cole and Kaye are in a bordello and he's both singing and playing the honky tonk piano. Since Cole's velvet syrupy singing is what most remember him for, it's good to remember that in the beginning Cole was a jazz pianist and his original records were with the Nat King Cole Trio as a pianist. His singing was something added and then took over his career. Cole was one of the great and most unique voices of the last century, he left us way too soon. Four years later John Wayne won his Oscar for the boozy Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. What I would have loved to have seen is Wayne and Marvin playing their Oscar winning characters in a dual venture. That would have been a movie to remember. As is the funny and touching Cat Ballou.

Jane Fonda plays Cat Ballou, back in the days when she was not only acting but also accepting sexy kittenish roles, a rancher's daughter out to avenge the murder of said rancher by the bad guys who run the town. Yep, it's a sex Western, one that gives us the one-of-a-kind performances of Fonda and of Lee Marvin, who has two roles - an alcoholic gunslinger who's supposed to be Cat's saving and a mean, dastardly hit man with a prosthetic nose - and who won himself an Oscar for his delightful work. But it's not just the lighthearted performances of the actors that floats this film, it's also the riveting, uproarious script. The pace is never dull - there are some Westerns that'll slow things down to kind of add mood to a story, but not this one. This would make a nice double-bill with another of Fonda's sexy early roles, "Barbarella."

Cat Ballou is a fun romp through the great American west. While it presents a definite "Apple Dumpling Gang" atmosphere, it still retains its gritty and resolute (...they'll never make her cry...) feeling. One of the best American Western comedies. Fonda is compelling as Catherine "Cat" Ballou, the "schoolmarm-gone-bad." Her performance in this movie is among the best performances of her career. Lee Marvin's acting abilities really reach out and grab you with his dual role as Kid Shelleen and brother-gone-horribly-wrong Tim Strawn. As Shelleen, you get to experience his comedic genius (this movie has a classic comedy scene that most of us never forget, featuring Marvin as Shelleen sitting on his horse, and he AND the horse are leaning drunkenly against a building), and as Tim Strawn, the tension POPS out at you. Michael Callan plays Clay Boone, Cat's would-be love interest. Michael Callan, also known as Mickey Calin, has done tons of movies starting with "They Came to Cordure" in 1959. In "Cat Ballou," his honest face and earnest smile captivate you right away, and his performance as Boone, holds you there. Although he's had loads of roles, most Americans will probably remember him from his stint on "One Life to Live," a popular American soap opera. (He played Jack Simmons.) Frankie Ballou (Cat's Father) is played extremely well by John Marley; a curmudgeonly rancher who has definite views (however odd they may be) on the true origins of the Native American. This movie has it all! Action, suspense, comedy and heart. It also boasts some of the greatest stars of its time: Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Dwayne Hickman, Stubby Kaye (!!) (Marvin Acme in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ellis Island *1984,* Taxi *1953,* Guys and Dolls *1955,* and Lil Abner *1959* among many more), Reginald Denny and Bruce Cabot! The story is narrated in song by Nat King Cole, playing professor Sam The Shade AS Nat King Cole. This movie whisks you from your seat, carries you down the river, and plunges you over the waterfall. Hang on and enjoy the ride. It easily rates an 8.4/10 from... the Fiend :.

In the most lighthearted roles of their careers, Academy Award-winner Jane Fonda (Klute, Coming Home) and Lee Marvin (winner of the Best Actor Oscar for this performance) shine as the title character, a virtuous young schoolmarm who sets out to avenge the death of her father Frankie (played by John Marley), and as drunken sharpshooter Kid Shelleen, who agrees to help the young woman go after the killer(s). Along for the ride are Clay Boone (Michael Callan), a handsome young felon who is sheltered by Cat and falls in love with her; Jed (Dwayne Hickman), Clay's Bible-thumping uncle, and Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini, who is hilarious), the Ballou's hired hand who philosophically comments on the treatment of Native Americans. Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye are enjoyable as troubadours who sing the plot of the movie as it moves along. Fonda never looked more beautiful, Marvin is a hoot (as Shelleen and his twin brother, the silver-nosed Tim Strawn), and the screenplay (by Walter Newman, Frank R. Pierson and Roy Chanslor, from his novel) is remarkable. Memorable scenes include the opening train sequence, the brawl at the square dance, the showdown between Cat and Sir Percival (played by character actor Reginald Denny) and the conclusion at the gallows. Delightful from start to finish! ***1/2 out of ****

One of the best modern westerns made that John Wayne wasn't in. Jane Fonda is great as the schoolmarm-turned-outlaw Cat Ballou. When she begins to seek vengeance against the railroad for her father's death, you believe she's really going to get them. I don't have to say much about Lee Marvin's performance; it's perfect all the way. His dual role, where he plays Kid Shelleen and his evil brother, Tim Strawn, gives him the chance to really stretch his acting talents. When Marvin plays the drunken Shelleen, he's a comic delight. Even his horse looks drunk. When he plays Strawn, the screen sizzles. If you need a reason to see this movie, Lee Marvin should be the reason. Michael Callan is fine as Jane Fonda's love interest, and Dwayne Hickman steals the scenes he's in as Callan's "uncle"; he's really good in this film. John Marley is pretty funny, also, and Cat's father; his views on the Indian nation are revolutionary, to say the least. Tom Nardini is wonderful as the hired hand who goes along on Cat's quest, none too willingly. All in all, this is a tour-de-force of acting and writing. Sharp, witty, warm and action-packed, this is a film everyone should see at least once. I've seen it many times, and it's never lost its luster for me.

This film is a hilarious spoof of most of the serious oaters. Lee Marvin, who plays TWO roles, won Best Actor for this film and deserved it! This was before Jane Fonda became Hanoi Jane and I liked her back then. The plot is an oater standard - revenge for the relative (Jane's father) who'd been murdered. She hires a famous gunslinger (Marvin) to fight another gunslinger (also Marvin). This is a classic comedy and I think anyone would enjoy it!

Lee Marvin got a lot of kudos for his portrayal of a hilarious drunk gunman. The only trouble was that when I saw it, Marvin was far from hilarious--just rather annoying and it is hard to believe this is supposed to be a comedy. Where are the laughs? I guess everyone tries real hard but the writing just isn't there and Marvin's character is just one-dimensional and uninteresting. I wonder what it would have been like if his character from the Dirty Dozen could have been substituted?! The sad thing about this movie is that despite his performance, Marvin got the Oscar that year. See for yourself with an open mind and you'll probably find yourself saying "why?".

I have always enjoyed the tour-de-force effort of Lee Marvin in this movie. There are a series of scenes that make it an utter delight. When the rear of the stagecoach is opened and the crumpled up gunslinger rolls out on the ground, we know it's going to be a tough ride. When they get him sobered up enough to show his skill and in a demonstration of shooting, he misses the barn. He and his horse leaning against a building, both of them apparently drunk. Kid's rendition of Happy Birthday at the funeral of Cat's father. The ongoing chorus of "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" with Stubby Kaye and Nat "King" Cole. The scene where Kid Schelleen is bathed and preened in preparation for the big showdown is a classic. It's so much fun from beginning to end. This is a feel-good movie which never needs to be taken seriously.