Film

Cat Ballou

Name: Cat Ballou
Genre: Western, Comedy
Released: 1965
Cast: Jane Fonda, Michael Callan, Lee Marvin, Dwayne Hickman, Tom Nardini

Cat Ballou is a shaggy, affectionate spoof of the western's most solemn myths, built around Lee Marvin's Oscar-winning double act as a once-feared gunslinger now mostly famous for falling off his horse. Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye drift through as singing narrators, turning revenge into a wry campfire ballad. Light, funny, unhurried — for anyone tired of westerns taking themselves too seriously.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like spoof westerns where the genre's conventions get teased affectionately and a sly comic tone keeps undercutting the gunplay, with an offbeat, knowing sense of humour.

Skip it if you find slapstick and a cheerfully silly tone wearing, or prefer westerns played straight; its jokes are broad and it rarely takes its gunfights seriously.

What it asks of you: Its 97 minutes move quickly between broad gags, music and sudden shifts in mood, so you need to go along with its playfulness rather than track a tight plot.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969

Paul Newman and Robert Redford turn outlaw legend into breezy banter, undercutting western machismo with the same affectionate irony Cat Ballou brings to its gunslinger myths.

But The comedy softens into genuine melancholy by the end — don't expect the laughs to hold all the way through.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid poster

Blazing Saddles1974

Mel Brooks takes the western spoof Cat Ballou gestures at and detonates it completely — anarchic, filthy, and gleefully aware of every genre cliché it's mocking.

But The humour is broader and cruder; some of its era-specific jokes read now as deliberate provocations rather than punchlines.

Support Your Local Sheriff!1969

James Garner plays a lawman who'd rather talk his way out of trouble than draw, a gentler cousin to Kid Shelleen's reluctant heroics, in a comedy that trusts charm over jokes.

But It's slighter and slower than Cat Ballou — more amiable than laugh-out-loud, and it knows it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Cat Ballou

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Destry Rides Again1939

Both films use a hero who looks nothing like the western legend to expose how flimsy that legend really is — Destry did it first, and straighter.

A deceptively mild deputy who refuses to carry a gun turns out to be the sharpest hand in town — Jimmy Stewart inverting the gunslinger myth thirty years before Cat Ballou got there.

But It's black-and-white, slower-paced, and its comedy is gentler and more old-fashioned than Cat Ballou's.

Paint Your Wagon1969

Lee Marvin sings — badly, gloriously — in this shaggy musical western about a mining-camp love triangle, proof he could turn any western convention into a joke on himself.

But It's a musical first and a comedy second, and at nearly three hours it tests the patience Cat Ballou never does.

True Grit1969

A headstrong young woman hires a grizzled, unreliable gunman to avenge her father — the plot Cat Ballou plays for laughs, told here mostly straight, with John Wayne at his most iconic.

But It plays its revenge story with far more sincerity and far less winking irony than Cat Ballou's tongue-in-cheek approach.

Maverick1994

Mel Gibson charms his way through a card-sharp's odyssey in a big glossy studio western that treats every gunfighter cliché as a setup for a punchline.

But It's slicker and more star-powered than Cat Ballou, without much of that film's scrappy, low-budget charm.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue1970

Sam Peckinpah's oddball, tender comedy about a desert prospector who strikes it lucky shares Cat Ballou's interest in undercutting western heroism with humane absurdity.

But It's stranger and more melancholic than Cat Ballou, with pacing that meanders rather than gallops.

McLintock!1963

A boisterous John Wayne comedy-western full of brawling and bluster, offering the same broad, affectionate spoofing of frontier machismo that makes Cat Ballou so likeable.

But Its gender politics have aged badly, and the slapstick runs longer and rowdier than most modern viewers will want.

Nine to Five1980

Fonda plays the same appetite for justified payback here that powers Cat Ballou's revenge plot, just relocated from the frontier to the workplace.

Jane Fonda leads a trio of secretaries plotting revenge on their odious boss, trading six-shooters for filing cabinets in a broad, gleeful comedy about getting even.

But It's an office comedy with zero western trappings — the tonal cousin, not the genre one.

Rango2011

Both build their comedy from the gap between a manufactured legend and the unimpressive person behind it — one in live action for adults, one animated for everyone.

An animated chameleon stumbles into a dusty frontier town and accidentally becomes its legendary gunslinger — a family film that spoofs the same tall-tale mythology Cat Ballou winks at.

But It's aimed at kids first, so the satire is broader and gentler than anything in Cat Ballou.