Review of Cat Ballou (1965) by Cameron J — 26 Jun 2011

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.