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Cat Ballou movie storyline. Cat(herine) Ballou’s (Jane Fonda) family farm is being threatened by the Rail Road. She sends for Kid Shelleen, finding him to be the drunkest gunfighter in the west. When her father is killed by the rail road magnate’s gunman, she vows to fight on. Shelleen manages to ride sideways in several scenes, while minstrels sing the ballad of Cat Ballou in between scenes.
Cat Ballou is a 1965 American western comedy film starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual role. The story involves a woman who hires a notorious gunman to protect her father’s ranch, and later to avenge his murder, only to find that the gunman is not what she expected. The supporting cast features Tom Nardini, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, and Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, who together perform the film’s theme song, and who appear throughout the film as a kind of musical Greek chorus and framing device.
The film was directed by Elliot Silverstein from a screenplay by Walter Newman and Frank Pierson adapted from the 1956 novel The Ballad of Cat Ballou by Roy Chanslor, who also wrote the novel filmed as Johnny Guitar. Chanslor’s novel was a serious Western, and though it was turned into a comedy for the film, the filmmakers retained some darker elements. The film references many classic Western films, notably Shane. The film was selected by the American Film Institute as the 10th greatest Western of all time in its AFI’s 10 Top 10 list in 2008.
The film was director Elliot Silverstein’s second feature film, and his relationship with producer Harold Hecht while filming was not smooth. Ann-Margret was the first choice for the title role but her manager turned it down without letting the actress know. Ann-Margret wrote in her autobiography that she would have wanted the part. Among others, Kirk Douglas allegedly turned down the role of Shelleen. Years later he played a similar double role in The Man from Snowy River.
Nat King Cole was ill with lung cancer during the filming of Cat Ballou. A chain smoker, Cole died four months before the film was released. Actor Jay C. Flippen suffered a circulatory failure during filming, and as a result, later had his leg amputated due to gangrene.
About the Story
Catherine “Cat” Ballou, who wants to be a schoolteacher, is returning home from boarding school by train to (fictional) Wolf City, Wyoming, to the ranch of her father, Frankie Ballou. On the way, she unwittingly helps accused cattle rustler Clay Boone elude his captor, Sheriff Maledon, when Boone’s Uncle Jed, a drunkard disguised as a preacher, distracts the lawman.
Arriving home, Cat learns that the Wolf City Development Corporation is scheming to take the ranch from her father, whose sole defender is his ranch hand, educated Native American Jackson Two-Bears. Clay and Jed appear and reluctantly offer to help Catherine, and she hires legendary gunfighter Kid Shelleen to help protect her father from gunslinger Tim Strawn, the hired killer who is threatening him.
Shelleen arrives, and proves to be a drunken bum whose pants fall down when he draws his gun, and who is unable to hit a barn when he shoots unless sufficiently inebriated, in which state he reveals himself as still being a crack shot. Strawn kills Frankie, and when the townspeople refuse to bring Strawn to justice, Catherine becomes a revenge-seeking outlaw known as Cat Ballou.
She and her gang rob a train carrying the Wolf City payroll, then take refuge in “Hole-in-the-Wall”, where desperados go to hide from the law, but are thrown out when it is learned what they have done, since Hole-in-the-Wall can only continue to exist on the sufferance of Wolf City. Shelleen, inspired by his caring affection for Cat, works himself into shape, dresses up in his finest gunfighting outfit, goes into town and kills Strawn, casually revealing later that Strawn is his brother.
Cat poses as a prostitute and confronts Sir Harry Percival, the head of the Wolf City Development Corporation. A struggle ensues, Sir Harry is killed, and Cat is sentenced to be hanged. With Sir Harry dead, there is no hope for Wolf City’s future, and the townspeople have no mercy for Cat. As the noose is placed around her neck, Uncle Jed appears, again dressed as a preacher, and cuts the rope just as the trapdoor is opened. Cat falls through and onto a wagon and her gang spirits her away in a daring rescue.
Cat Ballou (1965)
Directed by: Elliot Silverstein
Starring: Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Nat King Cole, Stubby Kaye, Tom Nardini, John Marley, Reginald Denny, Jay C. Flippen, Arthur Hunnicutt, Bruce Cabot
Screenplay by: Walter Newman, Frank Pierson
Cinematography by: Jack A. Marta
Film Editing by: Charles Nelson
Set Decoration by: Richard Mansfield
Music by: Frank De Vol (score), Mack David (songs), Jerry Livingston (songs)
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: May 7, 1965 (Denver), June 18, 1965 (Los Angeles)
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