User Reviews

Extremely appealing fable from the celebrated director Sam Peckinpah, who works from an often poetic script by Edmund Penny and actor John Crawford. Here he and a very fine cast create some endearing characters worth getting to know. He also revisits the theme of the changing times in the American West (the story is set in 1908, and our characters marvel at the sight of a car). It crosses genres with ease - Western, drama, comedy - and even at 122 minutes, never feels padded out.

Jason Robards is excellent as the title character, betrayed by his lowlife associates, Bowen (Strother Martin), and Taggart (L.Q. Jones), and left to wander the desert on his own. Cable crosses the desert for days, almost certain to perish due to lack of water. Then, by miracle, Cable discovers an underground well of water. He travels to the nearest town to use his very meager funds to buy two acres in the area, and crafts what turns out to be a thriving way station in this desert wilderness. He also makes the acquaintance of wistful prostitute Hildy (Stella Stevens) and lustful preacher Joshua (David Warner).

Robards's compelling performance anchors this saga, as Cable courts the vague hope that someday Bowen and Taggart will stop by his place for water and he can get some revenge. The gorgeous Stevens - who does some rather tasteful nudity for the picture - flourishes in one of her best ever roles as Hildy, too, yearns for something more out of life. Warner supplies quite a bit of lecherous comedy relief, as he can't help helping himself to the ladies. This solid assemblage of actors also includes Slim Pickens, Peter Whitney, R.G. Armstrong, Gene Evans, Kathleen Freeman, and Vaughn Taylor.

Lovely, sun baked photography and a lush score by Jerry Goldsmith are other positive attributes to this poignant film, considered by some to be one of Peckinpahs' finest efforts.

Eight out of 10.

It can be argued that Jason Robards gave his career screen performance in the title role of in The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Borrowing heavily from Lee Marvin's Kid Shalleen from Cat Ballou, Robards is one desert rascal who turns a crisis into a moneymaker.

Old time prospector Cable Hogue is deserted and left to die on the desert by his two partners, Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones. Ready to cash it in, he happens on some water, the only water in a desert between two Nevada towns. With only 35 cents to his name, he takes a claim on the two acres where that spring is and through some wit and rascally charm he gets the stagecoach line to open up a station right there.

In the list of Sam Peckinpah's screen credits this is the only comedy in the bunch and I'm surprised he didn't do more. None of those slow motion hymns to violence are in this film, but Peckinpah does show a good sense of comedy which given the type of stuff he normally did you wouldn't think he would have.

Of course the other half of the credit for The Ballad of Cable Hogue belongs to Jason Robards and the droll performance he delivers. Cable Hogue is a man who's got a good sense of himself and ain't easily trifled with.

Stella Stevens is good as the tart where her heart ought to be. And such Peckinpah regulars as Slim Pickens and R.G. Armstrong round out a very capable supporting cast.

For unusual taste of Peckinpah, you really ought to see The Ballad of Cable Hogue.

I didn't even know this was a Sam Peckinpah movie when I watched it. It has been programmed regularly on Cable TV here in the UK, and I idly switched over to it one Sunday evening. Cowboy movies in 2012? You must be joking! However, I was sufficiently hooked to watch this guy left for dead in the desert. It looks like Jason Robards, so it has to have something going for it. He finds a muddy puddle in the desert. OK, a cliché about this guy building up a prosperous business from scratch. Well, not quite. The clichés never happen. Instead the dialogue is interesting, poetic, never predictable. The character of Cable Hogue has depth and empathy. David Warner hoves into view as a disreputable preacher, dressed in black and thin as a gutter. In the nearest town we meet the hooker, played beautifully by the delectable Stella Stevens. OK, there are elements of slapstick which never quite work, but you feel the movie has something beyond the conventional western. When I discovered it was by Peckinpah, I immediately thought - yes, this is the work of a great director. Not a full-blown symphony, perhaps a string quartet (though by all accounts it cost enough to make). It leaves you with a feeling of satisfaction, tinged with melancholy. That coyote at the end has a collar - perhaps a symbol of the taming of the wilderness.

In direct response to the controversy which erupted over the unprecedented violence and gritty realism of The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah did what many of the greatest American filmmakers have done over the years. His next project would end up being almost intentionally counter to the previous film.

The result was The Ballad of Cable Hogue, a small-scale, intimate tale that is equal parts a nostalgic look back to the Old West and a tribute to the kind of man capable of surviving and thriving in such an environment. Jason Robards is touching and firm as the title character, left for dead in the prologue but able to fight through his misfortunes and create his own oasis. Along the way, he encounters a most unusual and shifty man of the cloth and a prostitute with a heart of gold. Stella Stevens is really wonderful as Hildy, one of the best examples of this most ancient of Hollywood screenplay clichés. Her romance with Hogue is both sincere and sad as Peckinpah uses this as a template for how the romantic West quickly found its way into decline and obsolescence.

Peckinpah may have gotten a lot of flack for The Wild Bunch but this film received almost just as much criticism, ironically for being almost exactly not what he had come to be known for. However, some forty years later, Peckinpah's true vision of men unable to conform to the regularities of society shines through. Gorgeous photography, solid acting, a beautiful score and themes of survival and memory point to this as one of the most brutal Western director's gentlest and personal triumphs.

Peckinpah followed up his masterpiece, "The Wild Bunch," which featured slow-motion violence, with this gentle comedy western featuring fast-motion comedy. Robards is wonderful in the title role, a good-natured loser who hits upon a goldmine by stumbling upon a water spring in the desert. Stevens looks hot and has one of her best roles as a hooker with a heart of gold. The great supporting cast includes Martin and Jones, who seem to have picked up right where they left off in "The Wild Bunch." While enjoyable, it is perhaps a little too low-key to sustain a running time of two hours, and the ending is rather contrived. The soundtrack includes a couple of tuneful songs.

There was always far more to Sam Peckinpah than just bullets, bloodbaths, and squibs. "Bloody Sam", as he was so often called, was also a mercurial and complicated director who could quite easily master the fine art of congenial character studies as he could the dark and violent side of Man. Case in point is his 1970 western THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE. Alongside his 1972 contemporary western JUNIOR BONNER, BALLAD is Peckinpah at his most relaxed, as well as his most overtly comic. Due to typical studio finagling, BALLAD was far from a hit when it was released in May 1970; but it has since then attained a better place in the western pantheon.

Jason Robards stars in the title role, a desert rat left to fend for himself after his two unscrupulous partners (the always-reliable Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones) abandon him without any water out on the Nevada desert. Vowing revenge one day against them, he stumbles through the desert for several days; and just when he's near the end of his rope, in the middle of a sandstorm, he comes upon water--in a place it isn't supposed to be. The waterhole becomes his salvation, and eventually a money-making enterprise, being situated along a heavily traveled stagecoach route. Into his life come a sex-starved preacher (David Warner) and a small-town prostitute (Stella Stevens) bound for New Orleans. And yet, for all the companionship they provide and all the money he gets from the water, he still can't stop thinking about getting even with Martin and Jones--a fact that eats at him and makes him vindictive, even towards Stevens and Warner.

Stuck as it was between THE WILD BUNCH and STRAW DOGS in the Peckinpah film canon, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE was largely considered by some to be a minor film, seeing as how it had next to no violence to speak of (which makes the 'R' rating it has a bit much today--'PG-13' would be more like it). But it showed that Peckinpah cared as much for characters as he did for content, a fact that holds true for all of his best movies but which so often got set aside because so many critics focused on the violence. The musical interludes don't necessarily catch on very well, but they are the only (minor) flaw to this congenial mix of comedy and drama in a sagebrush setting. Robards does his usual good job as the grizzled desert rat; Stevens scores as the love he really can't have; and Warner's performance as the lecherous preacher Joshua is incredible. Other Peckinpah regulars like R.G. Armstrong and Slim Pickens provide the usual great support; and the period score by Jerry Goldsmith, and Lucien Ballard's fine cinematography top things off.

THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE is a film in need of revival, both for Peckinpah cultists in particular and indeed Western film fans in general. It proved that even a troublesome Hollywood infant terrible like Sam Peckinpah could be congenial when given the right material.

The Ballad Of Cable Hogue sees Sam Peckinpah in jolly form. There is nothing here to trouble the censors, a bit of violence here and there - and some nasty human traits seam through the story, but this is purely a funny and touching movie that again deals with a Peckinpah fave theme of the Old West passing. Only difference is here he has his tongue firmly in cheek as he observes the thirst for finance sweeping across the country.

Cable Hogue is a prospector left for dead in the desert by his two double-crossing partners Bowen & Taggart. Wandering across the desert talking to god, Hogue collapses during a sandstorm and finds mud on his boot, after digging down for a while he finds the miracle of water (though Hogue badly misspells this on his advertisement). An encounter with preacher Joshua convinces Hogue to go patent his spring and make a killing selling water to the passing stagecoach trail that runs by his newly found oasis. After striking a deal in the town of Dead Dog, Hogue is set up nicely while into the bargain he falls for gorgeous prostitute Hildy. The film cheekily (just like Hogue) has established itself as a fine piece by the time it takes it's dark turn. It seems that revenge is the new found recipe on the Cable Springs Menu.

This was Sam Peckinpah's favourite film from his own CV, it's his most personal, he apparently saw a lot of himself in Cable Hogue, and with that in mind the film does gain a bit more emotional heart. But strikingly, it's the humour in there that shouldn't be understated, this was the director at one with himself, and the result is lyrical deftness. The cast are great, Jason Robards is wonderful in the title role, Stella Stevens as Hildy shows a fine actress at work. So much so it only makes me lament that she didn't have a great and industrious career post Cable Hogue. Peckinpah faves Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones & Slim Pickens reward their loyal director with impacting shows, while David Warner as the confused sexual predator preacher Joshua practically steals the film with his hedonistic leanings.

Don't go into this film expecting a blood and thunder Western and you will be pleasantly surprised at its thematic heartbeat. Different sort of Peckinpah, but it's also essential Peckinpah. 9/10

This classic Western deal with Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) a roguish hustler who in search of good life discovers water and gets property some lands placed on a desert in remote part of the Old West . After getting its register in the Land Office , Cable meets a whore (Stella Stevens) and falls in love with her . Cable along with the prostitute and a lecherous priest (David Warner) care his stopover as resort-lodging of a line stage. Hogue's Castle was a real-life hotel which was acquired in Bishop, California. It was packed-up and transported along with its own furniture to its shooting location across the border in Nevada.

Interesting story about a loner who turns into successful entrepreneur is deliberately paced by Sam Peckinpah and the production base for the film was at Echo Bay, Nevada . A twilight story ,¨Ballad of Cable Hogue¨ is a director Sam Peckinpah's lovely effort, feeling look at the world of the Western. Jason Robards , engagingly easygoing but obstinate , is the title character, a drifter who strives to preserve his values in an often harsh modern world . Robards turns a magnificent acting as a hustler who is searching in a changing world for values that have long time disappeared . He also must deal with his two enemies well played by usual Peckinpah couple, L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin , and a lovely whore wonderfully performed by Stella Stevens in his best role ever acted . Sam Peckinpah started work on this film almost immediately after finishing work on the landmark ¨Wild bunch¨ that is why Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones were cast in similar roles in both films . David Warner is particularly fine as the raunchy priest and in his relationship to Jason Robards strike real sparks. Furthermore, it contains an emotive score by the master Jerry Goldsmith, adding various sensitive country-western songs . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by Lucien Ballard, Peckinpah's usual, make this one a winner. An agreeable western with marvelous interpretations and exciting , enjoyable images including split-frames and fast-motion . This outstanding motion picture is stunningly directed by Sam Peckinpah, creating a true classic . Restored and reissued various times with diverse running . ¨The Ballad of Cable Hogue ¨ is a real must see for fans of the genre . This is a much quieter movie than habitual from ¨Cross of Iron¨, ¨Straw dogs¨, ¨The getaway¨, ¨Wild bunch¨ , ¨Major Dundee¨ director Sam Peckinpah who has always a deft eye for period detail . Rating : Above average, well worth watching .

Fresh off his triumphant "The Wild Bunch" and just before his astounding "Straw Dogs," Sam Peckipah made this "little picture," that flopped. However, while "The Wild Bunch" and "Straw Dogs" are terrific movies, "Ballad of Cable Hogue" is the most accomplished of the three. It certainly is hard to categorize "...Hogue," thematically. It includes strong elements of the following genres: o Violent western o Slapstick comedy o Sophisticated comedy o Romantic comedy o Love story o Social commentary o Spiritual film

With the exception of the rather silly slapstick, director Sam Peckinpah handles all these elements superbly, particularly the social commentary, spiritual elements and love story. Much credit is due to a fine cast, particularly actress Stella Stevens and actor David Warner, who both deserved Oscar nominations. Stevens, as the prostitute, "Hildy," mines the "...heart of gold" and hits the mother lode. Hers is one of the all time great performances by an actress. Warner's manipulative preacher, "Josh," manages to be alternately witty, lecherous, noble and profound, without missing a beat.

The best I can say about Jason Robards as "Cable" is, if you loved his character, "Cheyenne" from "Once Upon a Time in the West," you love his "Cable Hogue."

Don't read the plot of this movie. Go in as I did in 1970, not knowing what to expect. You'll be amused, touched, aroused (particularly if your a male) and saddened. It's all here. How many films can you say that about?

I give "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" a "10."

Released in 1970 and directed by Sam Peckinpah, "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" is a quirky Western drama/comedy/romance starring Jason Robards as a grizzled man left to die in the SW desert, but he miraculously finds a spring and starts a way station servicing stagecoach people and other travelers. He befriends a dubious evangelist (David Warner) and falls in love with a local prostitute (Stella Stevens) while hoping for revenge against the men who double-crossed him (Strother Martin & L.Q. Jones). R.G. Armstrong is on hand as a banker.

If you're looking for a conventional Western akin to Pechinpah's "Ride the High Country" (1962) or "The Wild Bunch" (1969), look elsewhere because this is a totally offbeat Western. As noted above, it's an eccentric mix of drama, comedy and romance, but such a description doesn't do it justice because it's so much more. Despite its amusing elements, it's a clever commentary on the human condition: The nature of God and man, spirit and flesh, love and sex, vengeance and forgiveness, religion and libertinism. Legalistic types might find it "offensive" and "anti-God," but nothing could be further from the truth. The LORD is all over this movie, despite the characters' overt moral failings or simple ignorance, just as depicted in the bible (the stories of Samson, Rahab and Naomi come to mind). If you can overlook the goofiness, or let it amuse you, this movie is actually profound with riches to mine. My title blurb says it all.

The film runs 121 minutes and was shot in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

GRADE: B

"The Ballad of Cable Hogue", when first released in 1970, may have caught the viewing public asleep. But, over the years, people have seen this film for what it truly is--a tribute by director Sam Peckinpah to the passing away of the old west, and a brilliant performance turned in by Jason Robards as a desert hobo who finally awakens to his need for touching base with the human race, ever so often.

Cable is left out in the desert by two comrades, Bowen and Taggart, to make his own way, or perish trying, as they head back to civilization. Hogue vows to catch up to them, but first, he has to find water, which he does, then establish a business for the stage line, which he is able to do, and show a profit. All this happens, and after several years of waiting, the two former friends do happen onto his way station, and a touch of revenge is extracted by Cable upon the two who left him in the desert.

This film has some remarkable elements; a great supporting cast led by Stella Stevens, playing Hildy, David Warner portrays a lecherous preacher who becomes Hogue's partner in the desert, and Strother Martin and L. Q. Jones add the touch of villiany this film needed. Also, the musical background will stay with the viewer long after the final credits have rolled. This movie is a fantastic portrayal of the fading era of the west, and Peckinpah left the public with a classic. 9/10, easily.

When Sam Peckinpah allowed some comedy to infuse his otherwise dramatic films, he displayed a subversive and very funny sense of humor. But if "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" is any indication, he was much less adept at staging an all-out comedy.

This farcical western starring Jason Robards as a man who discovers a water spring in the desert and proceeds to make a business out of it is an ungainly, even slightly ponderous affair. Its attempts at humor are mostly obvious and lead footed -- like speeding up the camera so that characters run around like they're in a Benny Hill skit. And the movie is far too long for the bare bones plot supporting it. I really like Peckinpah, but I thought this one was a struggle to sit through.

Two things I unequivocally did like about it -- the scene where Cable Hogue meets the character played by Stella Stevens and can't focus on anything but her cleavage; and the film's theme song, which I still can't get out of my head.

Grade: B-

This movie was a low point for both Jason Robards and Sam Peckinpah. Major plot points are taken directly from Sergio Leone's masterpiece "Once Upon a Time in the West" (released two years earlier and also featuring Robards): A man finds a watering hole is found in the desert, being the only water for many miles in every direction, he plans to build a 'station' around the hole and to ensure there's a love interest, he falls in love with a prostitute. To this add an intemperate preacher, bad music, silly fast action shots, even sillier T&A shots - and there you go. There is little question why it failed at the box office. The real question is "how did it make it that far?".

Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is left in the desert without any water.After a few days he finds a springs with lots of water. He offers some water to the stagecoach passengers for money. Until the automobiles take over.He becomes a friend with a preacher Joshua Sloane (David Warner).In the nearest town lives a whore called Hildy (Stella Stevens) who becomes Cable's lover and later they move together.Sam Peckinpah directed a terrific western comedy in 1970-one year after he directed The Wild Bunch.Some people may not like it so much because it isn't as violent as The Wild Bunch but I don't mind, I don't mind at all. The casting in the movie is brilliant.Jason Robards was a perfect man to play Cable Hogue.The movie has many memorable scenes.The Ballad of Cable Hogue left a good taste in my mouth- and I still haven't got it out.

So if you come here for a well-told story you may be disappointed. Other complaints I'd have would be the occasional use of sped up footage for comedic effect, as well as the gropey priest's groping being uncomfortably played for laughs (wasn't around in the 70s- maybe that kind of thing was seen as funnier back then).

But there's also a lot of good stuff here. Robards is fantastic, and I love seeing him carry a movie rather than merely be a scene-stealing supporting player. The breezy tone and general lightness (compared to other Peckingpah movies) works well, and kept me engaged for most of the run time. I also liked the music, the way it was shot, and the opening + closing scenes in particular.

Shave about 15 minutes off the runtime, and take out the unfunny (imo) stuff and even without a particularly deep storyline, I still think you'd have a pretty great movie. And then again, even with its flaws, this was still a more than solid watch.

When people mention Sam Peckinpah, the film most mentioned is The Wild Bunch. While I'm a big fan of that very violent film, I find out that most people don't even know about The Ballad Of Cable Houge, which I feel is his finest film.

The film is about a would be prospector named Cable Houge (Jason Robards in his best performance and that's saying a lot), who is left to die out in the desert with no water by his too partners (Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones). After almost dying out in the desert Cable actually finds water. He then buys the land and makes it a stop in the desert for stagecoaches to stop and refresh the horses. He becomes friends to a traveling and lecherous preacher (well played by David Warner) and a sweet prostitute, Hilly (played by the sweet faced Stella Stevens). But what Cable is mainly doing is lying in wait for the time that he runs into his former partners again.

It's a simple fable told with very little violence, and it's well told. It's definitely not the film that you would expect from the man who made the Wild Bunch. Warner Bros. who released it didn't know what to do with it and just threw out at the public with very little publicity, and the film never go the attention that it should have. Hopefully future film scholars with rediscover this gem and lift it from obscurity.

When Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is left in the desert without any water double-crossed by his partners Taggart (L.Q. Jones) and Bowen (Strother Martin), he prays for God and four days later he finds a spring in the route of the stagecoach to Deaddog City. Cable meets the preacher Joshua Sloane (David Warner), who advises him to claim for the land, and he rides to Deaddog where he has an encounter with the prostitute Hildy (Stella Stevens). He is financed by the local banker and builds a stagecoach stop with water, restroom and meals helped by Reverend Joshua. Later, Hildy is expelled by the dwellers of Deaddog and she moves to Cable's place, becoming his lover. She invites Cable to move with her to San Francisco, but Cable wants to revenge first against Taggart and Bowen.

"The Ballad of Cable Hogue" is an unusual western; actually it is a bitter comedy in the Wild West. This film is completely uneven, with pleasant and funny moments alternating with others boring and dull; the abrupt ending is awful, with a scene that is simply thrown to the viewers without any further explanation, just to symbolize the end of an era but it does not work well. Jason Robards and David Warner are excellent, but the sexy and extremely gorgeous Stella Stevens is awesome and "steals" the movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Morte Não Manda Recado" ("The Death Does not Send Message")

It's not hard figuring out what went wrong at the box office with Sam Peckinpah's follow-up to "The Wild Bunch". Not many who thrilled to the bloody end of Pike and Dutch were ready for an amiable rom-com, even one that starts out with an exploding lizard. Jason Robards finding love and God in the desert? Doesn't sound too promising, does it?

The wonder of "The Ballad Of Cable Hogue", or rather the first of many wonders, is how well it plays. This is Peckinpah's finest moment, one that stands alongside the greatest westerns of all time. It's a lot of fun, and at the same time, incredibly deep, its joys falling effortlessly into tragedy and back into joy like a desert bloom.

Robards plays Hogue, left in the desert to die by two faithless companions, Taggart (L.Q. Jones) and Bowen (Strother Martin in his best film performance). Instead, Hogue finds water, the only water along a stage road connecting the towns of Gila and Deaddog, water enough to make him rich. He also finds wayward preacher Joshua (David Warner) and ravishing prostitute Hildy (Stella Stevens), who puts aside her Frisco dreams to shack up with Cable. But can Cable put aside his dream of revenge against Taggart and Bowen?

You really don't need to know any more about "Cable Hogue" than that going in. You probably shouldn't know any more, because Peckinpah's film is all the better for the way it catches you by surprise. It's a stunningly different and more positive film from the director of the nihilistic "Wild Bunch". At the same time, it works as a reverse examination of that earlier film's major themes. If "Bunch" is about damnation, "Cable Hogue" is about salvation, and redemption, in a way that probably didn't help the film hit with audiences of the time but makes it timeless today.

Robards' performance is the center and the key of "Cable Hogue", the way he plays the character with equal parts ruthlessness and comic grace. Cable is at heart a good man, irreverent but a man of faith. His shy yet penetrating gaze breaks your heart in scenes like the one where he asks a banker for a grubstake and offers himself sheepishly as collateral: "Well, I'm worth something, ain't I?" Yet he is locked into himself and his demons so deeply that he can't recognize Hildy for the saving grace she represents. Sam working from his inner demons, no doubt, but coming up with deeper and better answers than he usually did.

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, led by Stevens in a performance that plays up her sex appeal without shortchanging her inner vibrancy. Warner's preacher character is essential also; he's a lustful hypocrite but a genuine man of God in his cockeyed way. Sure, his idea of spiritual consolation to young women involves much groping – but he also speaks truly about what drives Hogue in the wrong direction.

"What do you call that passion that gnaws at the walls of your soul?" he asks Hogue. "That's the very passion that will nurture the dandelions above your grave."

We of course would rather see Cable have his confrontation with Taggart and Bowen, something which arrives in such a backasswards way it only adds to "Cable's" unique genius.

Peckinpah was not a natural comedic director, and there are bits of goofy awkwardness here and there. But even when it's more Benny Hill than Boot Hill, the prevailing anything-goes mood wins you over. Everywhere in this film, Peckinpah takes chances with what he can get across and what the audience will accept. This makes "Cable Hogue" a lot bolder than the standard bloodbath.

Watching "Cable Hogue" offers a lot of iconoclastic fun, yet not without pushing you in uncomfortable directions. Whether or not you wind up happy with it, you will remember the ride, and I hope, find it as worthwhile as I did.

If you think Sam Peckinpah only made violent films, you owe it to yourself to rent this from your video store. A lovely, lyrical, and emotionally satisfying fable about the last western hero, trying to scratch out an existence as he watches his era pass him by. Wonderful performances by Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, and David Warner; an entertaining script; all directed with a light and subtle touch - for a change - by Sam Peckinpah. Although I am a great fan of the Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, and Major Dundee, Cable Hogue is in my opinion Peckinpah's masterpiece.

I was expecting to see a serious western. Cable Hogue does deliver with that aspect, when a down on his luck drifter discovers a water source on a stagecoach route and turns it into a going concern. The movie also depicts the main characters romantic pursuit of a young woman who is looking for a sugar-daddy in order to escape her means of prostitution. Hogue also wants revenge on the two former partners that left him high and dry (literally)...but the movie also has a comedic side to it, very similar to the likes of "Support Your Local Sheriff".

An All-Star cast also adds to the viewing experience, and the sexually revealing scenes of Stella Stevens (though portrayed in a comedic way) were actually quite risqué for the time.

If you're looking for a gunslinger western...this ain't it. But if you're looking for a interesting story with a great cast and some comedic overtones...then this movie will deliver.

I saw The Ballad of Cable Hogue while stationed in Virginia. I am not a huge fan of westerns, but this movie is one of the finest movies I have ever seen. The music itself makes the movie endearing and the characters and what they do makes the movie interesting from the start. It's a story of revenge, but there's no shoot 'em up heroics and bloody corpses lying around. Cable bides his time. What happens during this time is hilarious and the preacher is Cable's best friend. The ending is a twist that left me stunned and speechless. I won't say what happened cause there may be someone out there that has not seen the movie yet, but I highly recommend this movie. It is pure enjoyment and I am hoping that it is re-released in DVD with Dolby stereo enhancement, cause the music at the beginning is very moving. You will be humming that tune for the rest of your life. Thank you for reading my input. I would appreciate an email if the movie will be out on DVD someday.