Cat Ballou

Details

Release year: 1965

Storyline

A young schoolmarm in the Old West becomes an outlaw to avenge her murdered father.

Top credits

Awards

1 win & 4 nominations

Did you know

• Nat 'King' Cole had a nightly singing engagement at a Lake Tahoe nightclub. He would commute daily between Lake Tahoe and the set in order to do both. Everyone noticed that Cole was coughing a great deal whenever he was on the set and losing weight, but most figured he was just running himself down with such a gruelling schedule. Unbeknownst to them and to Cole himself, he was already very sick with lung cancer.

• At his acceptance of the Oscar, Lee Marvin opened by saying, "Half of this probably belongs to a horse out in the Valley somewhere".

• Modern-day audiences regard Lee Marvin's Oscar win for a raucous comedy with puzzlement, especially given the heavy-hitting dramas released the same year, such as Darling (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Ship of Fools (1965). At the time, however, Marvin's over-the-top portrayal of two total-opposite brothers was a revelation following a career playing one-note heavies. The actor had never had an opportunity to show his lighter side, and audiences loved what they saw - to the point where Marvin's nomination that year was for this movie rather than the far more prestigious and dramatic aforementioned Ship of Fools.

Box Office

Gross (Domestic): $20,666,667

User reviews

Technical specs

Sound mix

Mono

Aspect ratio

1.85 : 1

Color

Color