Rent The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

Comedy is a very difficult thing to make - this proves it. - The Ballad of Cable Hogue review by Strovey

The Ballard of Cable Hogue looked at from a distance could be said to be a tale of the Old West transforming into the Modern West starting off with parched stagecoach passengers and ending with cars and motorbikes. It also touches on friendships, revenge, well sort of. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, who is usually associated with over-the-top blood-splattered violence with very few laughs, it was a surprising effort from the director.

It has to be said it has not aged well. I have to say I am not an old person in the 2000s looking down on films from way back in the past and judging them because of different times. The film was made in 1970 when I was eight and I would probably have seen it on TV about five years later. I think I would have laughed as a 13-year-old but it has not stuck in my memory like so many other films from that era and it has not aged well like so many have.

Peckinpah's Cable Hogue tale is much more gentle and although violence is there, comedy is closer to the surface. Played by Jason Robards, who was at the time right in the midst of his well-noted alcohol problems, the character is the lynchpin of the film, all else fails without him. It is to Robard’s credit that Cable Hogue is an enjoyable and fun hobolike figure that despite his gruff manner and rough ways is likable. Amazing teeth for someone who never looked after himself too.

The story starts off well and you would have been excused for thinking it was a reasonably serious film then suddenly it veers off into Benny Hill territory with close-ups and ‘flashbacks’ to Stella Stevens' cleavage and animated winking Indian Chief on a dollar bill as Robards character realises what the shimming and smiling Stevens character is and he wants to pay for her services. Soon after we get a ‘comedic’ escape. It jars, is not particularly funny and seems as if it is from a different film. Also the Benny Hill speeded-up film – come on, it worked on the Benny Hill show but in a feature film for laughs?

There are problems from the minute we see Stevens as she is clearly the film's ‘eye-candy’ and her breasts plumped up are the co-stars. Then she gets to have an entirely unconvincing relationship with Robard and we are off into ‘what exactly is this film about’ territory again. The soundtrack in the film for the romance sequences is called Butterfly Mornings and is worse than the sequences itself. I presume a producer’s relative wrote it and it had to be included. Awful.

David Warner is also strong in the role of the lecherous priest and gives fun support alongside stalwarts Strother Martin, playing the same role he always did and Slim Pickens to name two. The landscapes and cinematography and look of the West is very good and gives you a feeling of that time but the flaw is the film and story itself.

The Ballard of Cable Hogue is a mess of a film with forced and unfunny humour, an odd story that is about revenge, greed, corruption and the end of the Old West that would have been better fixing a tone from the start and concentrating on perhaps just one or maybe two themes. The acting of the leads is okay, Stella Stevens is basically treated as a sex-object, breasts and bum on display, and Jason Robards is strong enough to carry what entertainment I got.

You cannot help feeling that Peckinpah was trying to be very different from his reputation but he tried too hard.

For some reason, this film gets a lot of love and praise from fellow film watchers. I cannot help feeling this is partially to do with the director.

For me, Sam Peckinpah or not, I will never watch The Ballard of Cable Hogue again.

A touching, romantic western - The Ballad of Cable Hogue review by IanF

I watched this after a recommendation from a review of the screen career of Jason Robards, at 6pm on Sky Arts (now on freeview). This was the only time he played a romantic lead. It works well, mainly because Stella Stevens makes a very attractive frontierswoman of dubious morals.