What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #110

The AFI named Cat Ballou one of the top ten best American produced westerns of all-time and also included it on their 100 Years… 100 Laughs list so it has to have something great about it… right? Well, I wouldn’t go that far, though I’m sure fans of the film will tell me I’m supposed to find pleasure in Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye’s theme song (it’s not too bad) and that there are some genuine laughs in it (there are), but overall it did little to nothing for me.

The story centers on an aspiring schoolteacher turned outlaw when her father is murdered after refusing to sell his ranch to the railroad. The film begins with the scene you see below, featuring the song I mentioned above and pretty much laying out the story I just mentioned.

The film held an obvious influence on Gore Verbinski’s Rango with the mariachi band of owls and the silver-beaked hawk Rango kills with the water tower would be Lee Marvin’s counterpart. That said, the film is yet another product of its time and would probably hold more appeal over me had I seen it when it was originally released in the mid-60s. Unfortunately, I wasn’t born for another 12 years after this was released and even then I’m not sure I would have understood the film too well. So I’m left to shake my head and say, nope, not really for me.