Cat Ballou
"A lark from beginning to end." -NEW YORKER
The sleeper hit of 1965, Cat Ballou was declared an instant classic when its sly blend of Western parody and rapid-fire action hit the screen.
Lee Marvin won an Oscar for Best Actor for his dual role as noseless ("it got bit off in a fight") gunslinger Tim Strawn and as Kid Shelleen, the woozy, boozy has been who goes up against him. Jane Fonda co-stars as Catherine "Cat" Ballou, the schoolmarm-turned-outlaw who teams up with Kid. Singer Nat King Cole and comedian Stubby Kaye also appear, singing the title song, "The Ballad of Cat Ballou."
This wild and wooly adventure is "the ultimate American spoof of the American Western." (Judith Crist)
Member Reviews
Good, but not Fantastic - ShawnConnery
It was certainly funny, and a nice way to spend an evening, but I didn't find it as funny as it was all chalked up to be. Don't get me wrong, Lee Marvin was hilarious and fantastic and certainly deserved the Oscar, while there were many funny one-liners and colourful characters. Music narration was also kinda nice. But the story, the acting other than Marvin, some of the sequences...just average. It didn't seem quite logical and organized at points, and some of the jokes kinda fell flat. Definitely good, but also definitely overrated.Actors on the Screen ! - Gyaan
This is still one of my all-time-classics , and that because of the simple story , the good and VERY good acting and the funny moments .
You could , as member "revsdd" mentions , be disappointed but you should not forget the year of the movie's production !
Since then , a lot of jokes have been copied , bested , altered or even deformed - not always for the better .
When you watch the movie please look at the acting of Jane Fonda when she is NOT talking , but in the background of a scene : through all those years I have rarely seen someone so gifted , so committed and so important to support a scene and other actors ! The same counts for Lee Marvin as KID - acting is not about having the camera stuck to your face and you start making faces to impress the audience , bathed in an ambiance of anguish and fear that's created by the musical score.
Most of us watchers would be heavily shocked by the very poor performances of most modern actors if they were thrown on a theater-stage where they have to fill a scene , a hall and a play with life , passion and credibility WITHOUT the support of an intelligent cameraman who manages to hide their flaws !
So much for the "questionable" Oscar for Lee Marvin .
CAT BALLOU just an entertaining movie from the times where special effects were rare and where the burden for the success of a story was laid on the script , the director AND the actors . The production stood in the first line - and not the post-production.
So I encourage all zip.fans to rent or re-rent this DVD and to discover the subtle treasures hidden within . AND HAVE FUN !!!Funny - Mr_Humidty
It's been about thirty years since I watched "Cat Ballou."
Back then my Dad had made the brilliant choice of purchasing an RCA video disk player--not a laser disk and obviously not a DVD. The video disk was a magnetic medium BUT ON A DISK instead of tape. Like its forebear the phonograph, the video disk skipped and had to be flipped halfway through its play. Ah, the 80's.
Anyway, we rented the disk for "Cat Ballou." My grandparents were over, and so was my friend Kirk. Well, the movie was funny, and we got to laughing, especially Kirk. So my grandfather kept pausing the movie and griping, "This one [Kirk] won't keep quiet." Kirk was a polite kid and got embarrassed, but I thought Paw-paw was being a jerk.
OK, not much of a review.
Member Reviews
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Good, but not Fantastic - ShawnConnery
It was certainly funny, and a nice way to spend an evening, but I didn't find it as funny as it was all chalked up to be. Don't get me wrong, Lee Marvin was hilarious and fantastic and certainly deserved the Oscar, while there were many funny one-liners and ...Actors on the Screen ! - Gyaan
This is still one of my all-time-classics , and that because of the simple story , the good and VERY good acting and the funny moments .
You could , as member "revsdd" mentions , be disappointed but you should not forget the year of the movie's production ...Funny - Mr_Humidty
It's been about thirty years since I watched "Cat Ballou."
Back then my Dad had made the brilliant choice of purchasing an RCA video disk player--not a laser disk and obviously not a DVD. The video disk was a magnetic medium BUT ON A DISK instead ...