Comedy

Cat Ballou

Long before Unforgiven deconstructed the Western, or Blazing Saddles lampooned it, Cat Ballou poked the genre in the eye. An altogether enjoyable comedy, the film is full of small surprises, big laughs, and wonderful character turns. Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda) is a schoolteacher until a hired thug kills her daddy. To protect what she loves, she collects two petty criminals, a wisecracking hired hand, and a hired killer, Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin). Unfortunately, Shelleen is a raging drunk who is so inebriated and unsteady with a gun he literally misses the broad side of a barn. However, Cat, has, as they used to say in those days, a mind of her own, and she masterminds a spectacular train heist that puts them all on the lam. Marvin won an Academy Award for his role as the derelict Shelleen, and his performances (he actually has two) are still topnotch and on target. The framing device, two wandering minstrels, played by Stubby Kaye and Nat "King" Cole, are the maraschino cherries on the top of this Wild West confection. --Keith Simanton

The sleeper hit of 1965 Cat Balou was declared an instant classic when its sly blend of Western parody and rapid-fire action hit the screen. Lee Marvin won an Oscar for Best Actor for his dual role as noiseless ("it got bit off in a fight") gunslinger Tim Strawn and as Kid Shelleen the woozy boozy has-been who goes up against him. Jane Fonda co-stars as Catherine "Cat" Balou the schoolmarm-turned-outlaw who teams up with Kid. Slinger Nat King cole and comedian Stubby Kaye also appear singing the title song "The Ballad Of Cat Ballou." This wild and wooly adventure is "the ultimate American spoof of the American Western." Judith CristSystem Requirements:Starring: Jane Fonda Lee Marvin Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman. Directed By: Elliot Silverstein. Running Time: 96 Min. Color. This film is presented in both "Widescreen" and "Standard" formats. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating:  UPC: 043396048645 Manufacturer No: 04864

Maverick

Inspired by the 1960s TV series that starred James Garner in the title role, this lightweight Western from 1994 proved to be a surprising box-office hit. Well, maybe not such a big surprise, since it's from the star and director of the Lethal Weapon movies, and operates with a similar combination of mainstream plotting and easygoing humor. Mel Gibson stars as card-playing gunslinger Brett Maverick, who meets up with wily gambler Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and a marshal named Zane Cooper (James Garner, trading his old role to Gibson) on his way to the World Series of poker in St. Louis. Maverick's trying to raise the $5,000 needed to join the high-stakes contest, but that's easier said than done due to a lot of unscrupulous competition and a twisting plot of tricks and deceptions. It's all played for laughs and action, so the movie never wears out its welcome, despite a running time that could've used a good trimming. It's also fun to see the rapport between Gibson and Garner, as if the present and former Mavericks were a kind of surrogate son and father, bonded by their mutual skill in charming and conning their way through tight spots. Director Richard Donner also pays tribute to old Westerns by casting veterans of the genre in cameo roles (including Bert Remsen, Dub Taylor, and Denver Pyle), and Gibson's Lethal Weapon costar Danny Glover pops in for a surprise appearance. None of this really adds up to much since the movie makes no pretense about taking itself seriously, but that's precisely why audiences found it so entertaining. --Jeff Shannon

McLintock! (Authentic Collector's Edition)

John Wayne's most popular vehicle of the 1960s is a broad, boisterous comedy-Western and a family movie in every sense--in subject matter, casting, personnel, and the audience it aims to bear-hug. Wayne and his Quiet Man partner Maureen O'Hara reprise their large-boned lovers' quarrel in a Wild West variation on The Taming of the Shrew, while a cast of familiar supporting players do their best to avoid becoming collateral damage.

The picture is fascinating as an attempt to adjust and update the Duke as all-American icon. Rancher George Washington McLintock owns most of the town that bears his name, but James Edward Grant's screenplay is at didactic pains to establish the benevolence and socio-political enlightenment of his reign. G.W.'s former Indian foes have become his pals, he enjoys nothing so much as playing chess with his Jewish merchant buddy (Jack Kruschen), and he's tolerant--as his fellow landowners are not--of the homesteaders crowding into the territory. In what now seems like prescience about where things were headed in the 1960s, he even does his best to achieve rapport with (gasp!) impatient youth.

McLintock! was the first movie produced by eldest son Michael Wayne, and the first major assignment for director Andrew V. McLaglen (son of Quiet Man costar Victor). It steals like a bandit from a host of much better movies, but the Duke's great good humor and professionalism redoubtably anchor the proceedings. --Richard T. Jameson

The Apple Dumpling Gang (Special Edition)

Bill Bixby plays a 19th-century gambler who inherits responsibility for three orphans, but the kids in turn have something of value: a huge gold nugget. This Disney film from 1975 is an enjoyable potboiler with its sentimentality under control and the accent on laughs, most of which are provided, not unexpectedly, by Tim Conway and Don Knotts as thieves who want to get their hands on the treasure. An easy, safe film for children. You can't go wrong with this. --Tom Keogh

Head for cover! Don Knotts and Tim Conway are Wild West outlaws who can't hit the broad side of a barn -- but never miss when it comes to rounding up laughs! The hilarity begins when a roving bachelor (Bill Bixby) inherits three young orphans and a wealth of problems. When the youngsters stumble upon a huge golden nugget, they must fend off the greedy townspeople. So the kids join forces with the bumbling outlaws to stage a robbery of the gold. Little do they know a surly gang of sharpshooters plans to beat them to the draw! If you're aiming for fun, saddle up and head out with THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG!

The Hallelujah Trail

Acclaimed director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) turns the legends of the West upside down in this rip-roaring western comedy about the year Denver was nearly devastated by a droughtof whiskeyand had to have fortywagonloads imported through very harshand very thirstyterritory! Academy AwardÂ(r) winners* Burt Lancaster and Martin Landau team with OscarÂ(r) nominee** Lee Remick inthis beautifully filmed epic adventure that "wins both laughs and thrills" (The Hollywood Reporter)! Also starring Jim Hutton, Brian Keith and Donald Pleasence, this irreverent and literally dry look at frontier life is "possibly the funniest western ever made" (Los Angeles Times)!

The Frisco Kid

It's 1850 and new rabbi Avram Belinski sets out from Philadelphia toward San Francisco. Cowpoke bandit Tom Lillard hasn't seen a rabbi before. But he knows when one needs a heap of help. And getting this tenderfoot to Frisco in one piece will cause a heap of trouble - with the law Native Americans and a bunch of killers. Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford are one feisty team as rabbi and rescuer in this rough-'n'-ready romp that rivals Wilder's earlier Blazing Saddles in Wild West hilarity. Director Robert Aldrich is a seasoned hand at blending roughhouse and laughter as fans of his earlier The Dirty Dozen and The Longest Yard will attest. With a full posse of screen talents The Frisco Kid rides tall in the comedy saddle. Director: Robert Aldrich Starring: Gene Wilder Harrison Ford Ramon BieriRunning Time: 119 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569734036 Manufacturer No: 73403

Gene Wilder takes his most unusual role, a naive 19th-century rabbi sent from his native Poland to the fledgling Jewish community in San Francisco, in this warm-hearted comic adventure. The trusting soul is easy prey for the con men and criminals who prey on the immigrants arriving in the Philadelphia port and the rabbi, beaten but unbowed, continues his trek West solo: broke, underequipped, and hopelessly lost. Harrison Ford, fresh from Star Wars, is the roguish outlaw who adopts the determined traveler and the two become unlikely friends as they make their way through one scrape after another. Wilder makes a sincere and sympathetic hero, his faith and courage seeing him through one crisis after another, and fresh-faced Ford makes an endearing scamp of a bank robber. The meandering adventure, overlong at two hours, takes its time as the duo traverses the gorgeous American countryside and end up in the bustling Barbary Coast San Francisco of the Gold Rush era. Legendary hard-edged action director Robert Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly, The Dirty Dozen) brings a gentle touch and easygoing humor to this family-oriented adventure, but old habits die hard. While staying within PG parameters, Aldrich adds a little grit to the Old West fistfights and gunfights. --Sean Axmaker

My Name Is Nobody

My Name is Nobody is a spoof of spaghetti Westerns, but it's also a legitimate, highly regarded entry in the genre. Its pedigree is purebred, as it was executive produced by the maestro of spaghetti Westerns, Sergio Leone, as a personal farewell to the genre that he helped to create. It's a transitional film, cheekily acknowledging the impact of The Wild Bunch and Sam Peckinpah (whose name is seen on a gravestone in one scene) and the popularity of Terence Hill, whose comedic "Trinity" films represented the last gasp of the once-glorious spaghetti Western. All of these elements are beautifully combined in the amusing tale of Nobody (Hill), an ambitious young gunman in 1899 who idolizes a legendary gunslinger Jack Beauregard, played by Henry Fonda in his final Western (and his second for Leone, after the classic Once Upon a Time in the West). Before Beauregard can retire in peace, Nobody sets up a final showdown of epic proportions, and the great Ennio Morricone enhances the abundance of memorable scenes with one of his most playfully inventive scores (including a comical use of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"). Tonino Valerii fully deserved his director's credit, but Leone also made significant contributions (including the opening scene), and the result is a delightful and surprisingly resonant film that Steven Spielberg later called his favorite Leone production. It's easy to see why: Like many of Spielberg's films, My Name is Nobody qualifies as both art and entertainment. --Jeff Shannon

Young, ambitious gunman Nobody (Terence Hill) sets his eye on his idol, gunslinger Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda), who's intent on sailing off into retirement.

Wild Wild West

One of the box-office smashes of the summer of 1999, this film by director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Get Shorty) was raked by critics but embraced by audiences. Based on the 1960s TV adventure show that starred Robert Conrad, this film reimagined Secret Service agent James West as Will Smith, adding Oscar-winner Kevin Kline as his sidekick, agent-inventor Artemus Gordon. President Ulysses S. Grant puts West and Gordon on the trail of malign genius (and former Confederate soldier) Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) in a story about racism, partnership, and world domination. The special effects are lavish, even garish, but not all that special; they're not enough to elevate a mundane and familiar plot. Even Branagh, playing a man who only exists from the waist up--literally--can't find the juice in this lumbering affair. Still, the fast-talking team of Smith and Kline is a nimble one. Smith's affable charm and Kline's subversive wit win many points, though not nearly enough. --Marshall Fine

Wild, wild laughs, adventure and special-effects wizardry abound when megastar Will Smith reteams with the director of "Men in Black." Smith is agent James West, leading sidekick Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) and a sexy adventuress (Salma Hayek) on a perilous assignment: stop Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) and his contraption-driven plot to establish a Disunited States of America.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Director commentary
DVD ROM Features:The Steel Assassin interactive game; Artemus Gordon's Mind-Protection Theater reveals a trainload of behind-the-scenes clips; genre essays; web events and chat room access; sampler trailers
DVD ROM exclusive web site
Documentaries:Full arsenal of behind-the-scenes documentaries
Filmographies
Interactive Menus
Music Video:Wild Wild West - Will Smith Ballamos - Enrique Iglesias
Outtakes
Photo gallery:Stills gallery
Scene Access
Theatrical Trailer

Two Mules For Sister Sara

In the cactus-studded Mexican backcountry of the 1860s, a surly drifter who could easily be mistaken for the Man with No Name becomes protector and lethal helpmate to a red-haired nun wanted by the French for aiding the Juarista revolutionaries. Essentially a two-character showcase for the newly stellar Clint Eastwood and what was beginning to seem the poststellar Shirley MacLaine (subbing for Elizabeth Taylor), this sardonic study in testy collaboration, mutual deception and distrust, and slightly creepy sexual attraction is highly rated by a fairly small number of critics--chiefly, one suspects, for the dual-auteur cachet of having been directed by Don Siegel and based on a story by Budd Boetticher. Others deem it an undersauced spaghetti Western and find that the stars grate on the viewer as well as each other. Cinematography by the great Gabriel Figueroa is some consolation, but... if only Boetticher had been allowed to direct. --Richard T. Jameson

Hot Lead & Cold Feet

There's magic in the memories as great Disney moments are captured right here for you and your family to enjoy. A two-gun terror and his terrified twin brother turn an old cowtown upside down. A blazing, rip-roaring, riotous saga of brotherly competition in a winner-take-all battle for an inheritance. Jim Dale (PETE'S DRAGON, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL) stars in a triple-header of a role, pulling all the stops out as he plays three different people: Old Jasper Bloodshy and his two sons.