Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 16, 2021 13:49:35 GMT -8
The Ballad of Cable Hogue. This is a surprisingly good “little-film” Western. There are no big shoot outs. No rustling. No bar fights. It’s just a story of a guy who is robbed and left for dead in the desert and finds a waterhole. The rest flows from that. It’s a fairly good cast with Jason Robards in the lead role and Stella Stevens as Hildy. David Warner oddly and thinly plays the roving Reverend Douglas. But there are some nice additions, including Slim Pickens and Strother Martin. This film will never go down as a classic. But it is a quiet little film that is probably worth your time. Apparently this is Sam Peckinpah’s answer to “the controversy which erupted over the unprecedented violence and gritty realism of The Wild Bunch.” I was never particularly impressed by The Wild Bunch despite the presence of one of my favorite actors, William Holden. Certainly this film presaged the plague of junk films to come (of any genera) that were aimed at bored juveniles whose senses could only be reached by the most extreme measures. But The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a subtle film. And this is another movie you can find for free on the Movieland TV channel.
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Post by artraveler on Aug 16, 2021 17:15:27 GMT -8
I agree, it is surprisingly good little film. The story is interesting and just enough off the wall humor to keep you chuckling. I would not be surprised if somewhere in the history of the west something similar to this story did happen.
That it got lost among other movies of 1970 like Tora, Tora, Tora, Kelly's Hero's, Catch 22, and Little Big Man is no surprise. It has some of the same cadence as a Jason Robards and Don Johnson movie of 75, A boy and his dog. Altogether not a waste of time or the $1.95 to rent on amazon.
Good call Brad
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 16, 2021 17:53:46 GMT -8
Yes, a good thought. I’ve seen A Boy and His Dog a couple of times. It’s quirky on steroids. I put it in the same sci-fi realm as Repo Man. This is a movie that could have gone too far and been too silly without the stabilizing influence of Harry Dean Stanton. Odd .Weird. Not everyone’s cup of tea. But worth at least one view.
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Post by artraveler on Aug 16, 2021 19:01:18 GMT -8
I can not find that Harlan Ellison, author of A boy and his Dog, had anything to do with Cable Hogue. But the somewhat quirky dialogue has a lot of the style of Ellison in it. I would not be surprised if Ellison worked on the script and then decided to take his name off. He was known for that kind of thing. He came close to removing himself from the Star Trek pilot, City on the Edge of Forever. Gene Roddenbury managed to dissuade him of that.
BTW did you know that Gene Roddenbury wrote several episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel?
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 11,008
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 17, 2021 7:15:35 GMT -8
Yes, I think I’ve read that in his bio, particularly in regard to his idea of making a “Wagon Train to the Stars.” They still run (I think) Have Gun, Will Travel on Saturday morning on one of the over-the-air channels. I’ve never really gotten into it. According to the trivia section at IMDB, Gene Roddenberry wrong 24 of the 225 episodes.
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