Style: Comedy Western
Director: Elliot Silverstein
Working Time: 96 minutes
Synopsis: Outlaw Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) is about to be hanged in Wolf Metropolis, Wyoming, and her story is recounted in flashback. Whereas on a practice journey, Cat meets dashing fugitive Clay Boone (Michael Callan), who’s extra of a romantic coward than an outlaw, and his uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman). When she learns her father Frankie (John Marley) is being threatened, Cat hires legendary however perpetually drunk gunfighter Child Shelleen (Lee Marvin) for defense. He groups up with Clay, Jed, and farm hand Jackson Two-Bears (Jack Nardini) to assist Cat’s quest for justice.
What Works Effectively: Unfolding to the banjo-driven Greek refrain music of “shouters” Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, Cat Ballou carries a vivid twinkle in its eye. The story of a college instructor who resorts to crime as revenge for the destiny of her father is a effective excuse to go to western film landmarks, together with gunfighters, a practice theft, a suspect lawman, a desperado hide-out, a large-scale brawl, and a land dispute. Director Elliott Silverstein prioritizes character-driven and situational humour, and makes use of lengthy takes and loads of digicam movement to colourfully animate Cat’s world. Jane Fonda brings a streak of tradition-busting feminism to the position, and Lee Marvin is a grizzled pleasure because the esoteric gunfighter who shoots higher when drunk. His seemingly inebriated horse is just not dangerous, both.
What Does Not Work As Effectively: This can be a sequence of episodic misadventures held collectively by the thinnest of plot threads, whereas Michael Callan as love curiosity Clay lacks presence within the firm of Fonda and Marvin.
Key Quote:
Jackson: Child, Child, what a time to fall off the wagon. Take a look at your eyes.
Child Shelleen: What’s fallacious with my eyes?
Jackson Two-Bears: Effectively they’re crimson, bloodshot.
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