Cat Ballou **** (1965, Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin) – Classic Movie Review 2325

Director Elliot Silverstein’s likeable, raucously amusing 1965 spoof Western stars Jane Fonda as the titular Cat (Catherine) Ballou, a schoolmarm turned outlaw and Lee Marvin in dual roles as Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn, the cinema’s most pickled gunfighter and an evil shootist. When her family farm is being threatened by the railroad, Fonda’s Cat hires the gunfighter Kid Shelleen to take out the railroad magnate’s gunman who has killed her father, but finds him to be the drunkest gunfighter in the West.

The movie is an untidy package, but the laughs and action keep it rolling merrily along, particularly in the comic set pieces, when Marvin dons his fighting gear, and when he and his horse are the worse for drink, managing to ride sideways in several sequences.

The action is neatly linked by Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole, as the minstrels who sing ‘The Ballad of Cat Ballou’ in between scenes. Marvin was rewarded with a Best Actor Oscar for his outrageous performances in the twin roles. It’s fun stuff, a skilled and funny comedy turn, but hardly Oscar material. The win signalled mainly the actor’s huge, deserved popularity at this time.

Also in the cast are Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Tom Nardini, John Marley, Reginald Denny, Jay C Flippen, Arthur Hunnicutt (as Butch Cassidy) and Bruce Cabot.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2325

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com