Two minstrels (Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole) sing about the legend of Catherine “Cat” Ballou (Jane Fonda) – she was a young schoolteacher on her way home to Wolf City, Wyoming. She’s hoping to start a job there, all the while assisting her elderly father (John Marley) with the running of his ranch, which has slowly fallen into a state of disrepair, a result of his stubborn refusal to see any kind of change done on his cherished property. The problem is that his land is coveted by several people, including an enigmatic land-developer who hopes to build a new business on the demolished land and will go to any lengths to acquire it. On her way home, Cat runs into a pair of bandits (Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman), who take her under their wing, especially when they realize that, despite her prim and proper exterior, Cat has a rebel’s spirit, and would be a great partner, especially since she is far more shrewd and cunning than them, making her an invaluable ally. Along with them, Cat also makes the acquaintance of Jackson (Tom Nardini), a well-meaning Native American farmhand who has become something of a protege to Mr Ballou. Realizing the danger she and her father are in, Cat is forced into hiring a gunman to protect the farm and keep everyone out of harm’s way, since the townspeople are becoming increasingly hostile to the Ballou family’s refusal to give up their land, even going so far as to hire someone to kill them. Cat attempts to find someone to protect them, and believes that she is hiring the best possible person to do it, a decision she immediately realizes was a mistake when she comes to employ Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin), a drunkard who is more likely to hock his gun for booze than to shoot it accurately. However, this raggedy posse soon comes into their own, especially after a tragic event incites a fury in them that sets them on a path of vengeance, with a feral Cat at the helm, eager to wreak havoc on those who sought to destroy the very fabric of her family’s legacy.

Cat Ballou is one of the more interesting genre films of the 1960s – existing at the nexus between western and comedy, its one of the rare films that manages to execute a bleak story with nothing but cheerful exuberance, the two conflicting aspects working in tandem to deliver one of the more entertaining films produced during this era. Perhaps not a defining masterpiece, nor the most memorable of any of these actors, Eliot Silverstein’s outrageously funny western is equal parts satire and adventure, often finding the perfect balance between them and generally being quite a pleasant experience, if not a truly inoffensive, innocuous product of its time. Just about as complex as one could expect from a comedy of this nature, Cat Ballou keeps everything on the fundamentally simple level, never wavering in its commitment to being a diverting film that doesn’t offer much in the way of the genre, but instead flourishes as pure, unadulterated fluff, which is often the best approach to this kind of genre work. Looking at it from a modern perspective over half a century later confirms that, while the film may not have aged particularly well, it is still an earnest attempt at entertaining the wider audience by bringing together many of the most endearing aspects of both intersecting genres, and forming them into a delightfully irreverent film that functions less as a work of insular artistry, and more as a crowd-pleasing distraction that has some moments of brilliance peppered into the predictable storyline and execution derived from decades of more serious work that is condensed into the light, breezy affair that is far from hefty fare, but manages to be terrific all the same, and a rollicking, diverting good time of a film.

A large portion of Cat Ballou is built around the performances, and Silverstein manages to assemble an impressive ensemble, comprised of veterans and newcomers alike, tasking them with the joyful responsibility of bringing this film to life and giving these eccentric characters depth and nuance, which was not a particularly simple task, since the film around them tended to let them down at some points, mainly a result of the more lacklustre execution, which is mercifully clouded by some tremendously satisfying performances. Jane Fonda is exceptional as the titular schoolteacher-turned-outlaw who embarks on a journey of revenge, proving herself to be just as fierce as the men who look down on her. Fonda was far from the beloved cinematic icon we revere her as today, but rather a young starlet who was on the verge of a breakthrough, with Cat Ballou being perhaps the first indication of her immense talents in a bigger production, but still far from the watershed moment in her career that is best pinpointed as being They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? However, regardless of the nature of the role, she was incredibly charming in this film, taking a rather thinly-written character and imbuing her with spunk and resilience, being funny, heartfelt and authentic every step of the way. She’s also sharply contrasted by some of the other actors, often being the proverbial “straight-man” to their more outrageous characters. The one that stands out the most is journeyman actor Lee Marvin, who plays dual roles as battling gunfighter brothers, most prominently Kid Shelleen, a drunkard who joins Cat’s posse and proves to be both an enormous annoyance, and a huge asset to the team in their quest for vengeance. Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman are both hilarious and utterly interchangeable as the outlaw relatives who incite the spirit of rebellion in the protagonist, and John Marley is a scene-stealer in his brief but memorable performance as Cat’s doomed father. The cast is perfectly calibrated to the tone of the film, and deliver exceptionally funny performances that are as interesting as they are entertaining.

In many ways, the cast of this film was almost too good for the material and had the film taken a more complex approach, instead of attempting to be a crowd-pleaser, we might have gotten one of the more brilliant works of western comedy of the era. However, hypothetical situations don’t always bear much fruit, and there’s nothing wrong with how the film ended up realizing its vision (even if it made the bold but successful step to translate the popular source novel as a comedy, rather than a serious drama), Cat Ballou works best when it’s not taken too seriously, which is thankfully quite a regular occurrence. Ultimately, the film functions as a subversion of many popular tropes, which it engages with consistently – the genre was still at its peak, with the big-budget Hollywood western still being widely-embraced, and the encroaching influence of the spaghetti western making it an area in which many actors were able to get a good role and an even better paycheque. Cat Ballou is not a complex film, but unlike others that attempted to cash in on the genre, it doesn’t purport to be, nor does it particularly want to achieve anything other than being an exuberant comedy that doesn’t take itself all that seriously and persuades the audience to adopt the same mentality. From a modern viewpoint, this could be seen as something of a disadvantage – after all, audiences don’t want something predictable, unless the overall experience is worth it. Fortunately, Cat Ballou manages to meet expectations in this regard and is a perfectly adequate attempt at broad comedy that, whether intentionally or not, always lands on its feet with time to spare.

Cat Ballou is a perfectly adequate film, filled with some terrific performances (particularly from Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, and a scene-stealing set of supporting characters), and flourishes on its lovely sense of humour that conveys a warmth often missing in these kinds of comic westerns, which often neglect the heart at the core of the stories and focus instead on the subversion of popular tropes. Ultimately, this is a film that functions as a bit of diverting entertainment, rather than a definitive masterpiece. It’s a film that works more as a bit of buoyancy intended to entertain instead of making any clear statements, which may mean that it sacrifices its originality and potential to be fascinating, which turned out to be a worthwhile risk, as the final product is simply an enthralling experience that gives the viewer the chance to simply have a good time, allowing us to leave the seriousness behind for ninety minutes of escapism. Considering how so many lesser comedies of this era have aged so poorly, Cat Ballou is still surprisingly fresh and exciting, and its earnest sense of humour and exuberant use of colour and style, while not revolutionary, are quite remarkable in their own right, and all go into making it a truly memorable piece that may not be unique, but at least manages to captivate the audience for long enough to be a worthwhile endeavour – and sometimes that’s more than enough for a film like this.