Cat Ballou (1965)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Michael G

  
  Somewhere inside of Cat Ballou is a great movie trying to get out. With a rarely more beautiful Jane Fonda (see the scene towards the end in the red dress) and a great comedic dual role from Lee Marvin this movie begs to be noticed. But all the other shit driving me away was the… More
  Somewhere inside of Cat Ballou is a great movie trying to get out. With a rarely more beautiful Jane Fonda (see the scene towards the end in the red dress) and a great comedic dual role from Lee Marvin this movie begs to be noticed. But all the other shit driving me away was the problem. Let's start with the whole Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye thing -- STOP! If the songs are actually serving some purpose to move the story forward, fine but if they're just pissing people (namely me) off cut the crap. Then the chemistry between Fonda and Michael Callan was non-existent along with most of the jokes. And were there really natives who spoke Yiddish? Were there really?

• AJ V

  
  I've seen better women westerns than this, so this movie felt very silly and average. It gets a laugh here and there, but overall it's just okay.

• Ken S

  
  Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin are both great in this spoof of the western genre. Nat King Cole is also choice as the Greek choir singing the story of Cat Balou... Did I mention Jane Fonda?

• Dean M

  
  Good comedy-western and Lee Marvin was hilarious as a drunken gunslinger better than as a black-hearted hired killer (he played a duel role in this movie).

• xGary X

  
  This classic comic western sees sweet and innocent Jane Fonda turn desperado with the help of an inept outlaw and the town drunk. Great fun, especially Lee Marvin's turn as both the alcoholic ex-gunslinger and his tin-nosed nemesis.

• jay n

  
  charming

• Leigh R

  
  CLASSIC!

• Cameron J

  
  With all of these musical numbers, I though I was watching "Cats Ballou". Get it? "Cats: The Musical"? ...Sorry it's hard to make a good joke after this thing raised the standards too high for me too even think about reaching its level of hilarity. Okay,… More
  With all of these musical numbers, I though I was watching "Cats Ballou". Get it? "Cats: The Musical"? ...Sorry it's hard to make a good joke after this thing raised the standards too high for me too even think about reaching its level of hilarity. Okay, it's not that funny, but it's pretty dang funny. Still, the laughter does die down quite a bit at the many slow points. Other mood-killers include some forced scenes, a periodic lack of development, some overdrawn points, inconsistent character focus and some underwhelmingness. Still, in spite of this, the film is supported by originality, good musical numbers, charming characters and a fine storyline. As for the femenist subtext, it's noticeable, though not blatant and gets its point across. Touching on the performances, they're surprisingly fairly competent, but still don't get in the way of the hit-hard humor. The humor is snappy and well-written with razor-sharp delivery. Sight gags and dialogue are - in a good way - somewhat unsubtle, but the satire is ironically subtle and clever. This thing does poke fun at the tropes of Westerns, but doesn't shove its being a spoof down your throat. This kind of subtle, clever and sharp satirizing is hardly, if ever found in today's spoofs. In the end, "Cat Ballou" is unpretentious fun with good performances, charm, interesting messages and razor-sharp satire.

• Sarah B

  
  Hilarious western, much better than Blazing Saddles. Drunk horses, a resourceful dame in the voluptuous shape of Jane Fonda and a sozzled Lee Marvin make this a hugely enjoyable film.

• Leo L

  
  Hilarious! A great movie.

• Wu C

  
  Funny western spoof. Marvin won an oscar for his duel performance.

Read all 11 featured audience ratings