Hello Posse!
I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday. P.R. and I had a nice quiet day at home with Shaggy, our dog. It was Shaggy's "Gotcha Day" as well as Valentine's Day for us so we had double reasons so celebrate. Shaggy is a Russian rescue dog we adopted five years ago. He has been a blessing everyday of those five years and we look forward to having him with us for many, many more years.
I am getting a late start today. Shaggy woke me up about 15 till 7 this morning. He needed to go outside ASAP. It was actually a good thing. While it was colder than a snowman's butt out there, it was calm. By the time my alarm went off later in the morning, it was storming outside. Neither of us would have wanted to go out in that! Plus, storms bring migraines for me. It has something to do with the changes in the barometric pressure that comes with storms and the problems with my brain that cause this. Usually, like today, once the storm passes and the pressure goes back to normal, my migraine eventually goes away too.
Now, on with today's movie, Cat Ballou.
This movie really stands out among American westerns. It is a comedy starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin and features such stars as Tom Nardini, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, John Marley, Bruce Cabot, Burt Mustin, and Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye as "the Shouters" (narrators/Greek chorus). While you may not recognizes some of those names, I guarantee if you watch many westerns, you will recognize the faces. This film has elements that bring to mind the time of traveling minstrels (Cole and Kaye) who travel from town to town earning money telling great epic tales in song and dramatic theater.
Like many great western films, Cat Ballou was adapted from a novel. In 1956, Roy Chanslor published The Ballad of Cat Ballou. This book was not originally written as comedy. The screenwriters did keep some of the more dramatic scenes from the original story. Cat Ballou was released in 1965 and earned more than $20 million worldwide and was the 7th highest grossing film of that year. Lee Marvin won an Academy Award for Best actor for his dual roles as Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn. The American Film Institute selected Cat Ballou as the 10th greatest Western of all time in 2008.
The Shouters (Cole and Kaye) stroll through town singing the Ballad of Cat Ballou (Fonda). The men tell the tale of how Cat Ballou becomes an outlaw, out to avenge the murder of her father by a hired gunman, Tim Strawn (Marvin). Land developers hired Strawn to murder Cat's rancher father. She is determined to have her revenge on them and on Strawn as well. Cat hires her own hired gun, Kid Shelleen (also Marvin) who was once a great gunfighter but is now a drunken mess. The pair are joined by another handsome outlaw, Clay Boone (Callan). Together the work to clean up Kid Shelleen and avenger Cat Ballou's father. Will the motley crew prevail? Check out Cat Ballou for yourself to find out!
Movie Snack Suggestion:
For today's movie snack I thought Rachel Ray's, Whisky Wings Made in the Oven (<--- click to go to her recipe site) would be a good choice! Since Kid Shelleen was always drunk and quite the chicken, this just seemed like a good pairing. This recipe is a healthier version of deep fried chicken wings and so full of flavor.
Side note: I am so thankful for auto save on Wix! I accidently clicked over to my Facebook page and closed this blog out before I saved and scheduled it for distribution. If I had lost this whole thing, I am not sure I would have rewritten it today. It might have come out tomorrow instead. Thank you WIX!
So now . . . you know what time it is! Time to get your snacks and settle in for another great western movie!
Enjoy, posse!
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