The Ballad of Cable Hogue

Plot synopsis:
Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is isolated in the desert, awaiting his partners, Taggart (L. Q. Jones) and Bowen (Strother Martin), who are scouting for water. The two plot to seize what little water remains to save themselves. Hogue, who hesitates to defend himself, is disarmed and abandoned to almost certain death.
Confronted with sandstorms and other desert elements, Hogue bargains with God. Four days later, about to perish, he stumbles upon a muddy pit. He digs and discovers an abundant supply of water.
After discovering that his well is the only source of water between two towns on a stagecoach route, he decides to live there and build a business. Hogue's first paying customer is the Rev. Joshua Duncan Sloane (David Warner), a wandering minister of a church of his own revelation. Joshua doubts the legitimacy of Hogue's claim to the spring, prompting Hogue to race into town to file at the land office.
Hogue faces the mockery of everyone he tells about his discovery. That does not deter him from buying 2 acres (0.8 ha) surrounding his spring. He immediately goes to the stage office to drum up business but is thrown out by the skeptical owner. He pitches his business plan to a bank president, who is dubious about the claim. Hogue impresses the banker with his attitude and he is staked to $100.
Hogue, who hasn’t bathed since his desert wanderings, decides to treat himself to a night with Hildy (Stella Stevens), a prostitute in the town saloon. They quickly develop a jovial understanding but before they can consummate the transaction, Hogue remembers that he has still not set up his boundary markers and rushes out, much to Hildy's chagrin. She chases him out of the saloon in a sequence that wreaks havoc on the town.
Back at the spring, Hogue and Joshua get to work, dubbing the claim Cable Springs. The two decide to go into town and are drunk by the time they arrive. Hogue makes up with Hildy and spends the night with her, leaving Joshua to pursue his passion: the seduction of emotionally vulnerable women.
Hogue and Joshua continue to run the robust business, delighting in shocking the often genteel travelers with the realities of frontier life. In moments of solitude, Hogue and Joshua philosophize on the nature of love and the passing of their era. Joshua decides that he must return to town. Hildy arrives at Cable Springs having been "asked" to leave by the modernizing townfolk, who can no longer abide open prostitution in their midst. She tells Hogue that she will leave for San Francisco in the morning but winds up staying with him for three weeks. This time elapses during a tender, romantic montage.
Then one day, Taggart and Bowen arrive on the stagecoach. Hogue lets them believe that he bears them no ill will. Hogue alludes to a huge stash of cash that he has hoarded, knowing that the two men will return to steal it. When they do, Hogue outwits them, by throwing rattlesnakes into the pit they have dug. When they surrender, he orders them to strip to their underwear to venture into the desert, just as he had been forced to do. Taggart, believing Hogue will once again hesitate to defend himself, reaches for his gun but Hogue shoots him dead.
A motor car appears, driving right past Cable Springs with no need or interest in stopping for water. The drivers laugh at the archaic scene of western violence as they race past. "Drove right by," says Hogue in amazement. "Well, that's gonna be the next fella's worry."
Hogue takes mercy on the grovelling Bowen. He even gives him Cable Springs, having decided to go to San Francisco to find Hildy. The stagecoach arrives and Hogue gets ready to pack up when suddenly another motorcar  appears. This one does stop and Hildy emerges, opulently dressed. She has become prosperous and, now on her way to New Orleans, has come to see if Hogue is ready to join her. He agrees but while he loads the motorcar he accidentally trips its brake. The car runs over Hogue as he pushes Bowen out of the way.
Joshua, who arrives by a black motorcycle with a sidecar, gives a eulogy for Hogue as he dies. This segues into a funeral with the cast standing mournfully over Hogue's grave. They are grieving not only the death of the man but the era he represents. The stagecoach and motorcar drive off in opposite directions. A coyote wanders into the abandoned Cable Springs. But the coyote has a collar - possibly symbolising the taming of the wilderness.

Tags: murder, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, humor, revenge

Review:
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.
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.
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.
Peckinpah faves Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones & Slim Pickens reward their loyal director with impacting shows, while David Warner as the confused 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 it's heartbeat.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
"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.
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.
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).
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'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).
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 Hogue (Jason Robards) is left in the desert without any water.After a few days he finds a springs with lots of water.
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.
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.
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.
Jason Robards plays the hard-bitten and oft-bemused title character, Cable Hogue who somehow survives the ordeal of being left to die in the desert with no water by his partners, perfectly portrayed by the incomparable L.Q.(A Boy and His Dog) Jones and Strother Martin.
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 .
A twilight story ,¨Ballad of Cable Hogue¨ is a director Sam Peckinpah's lovely effort, feeling look at the world of the Western.
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 .
Jason Robards Jr. stars in one of the sweetest romance-comedy westerns by one of the most violent directors of the time Sam Peckinpah.
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.
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.
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-.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Director: Sam Peckinpah, Script: John Crawford, Edmund Penney, Cast: Jason Roberts (Cable Hogue), Stella Stevens (Hildy), David Warner (Rev. Josua Douglas Sloan)I don't know.
Yes love them or hate them, Westerns are the American mythology, likely to outlast even our ambitious Democratic experiment.What will the poets say about The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) probably my favorite western film since The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)?
Beneath its broad and occasionally satirical joviality there's not just the beating heart of true western heroism but a doctrine of positivity.The film starts with our hero Cable (Jason Robards), who is double-crossed by his partners in crime (L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin).
I can't believe this movie got less than 8 stars.Cable Hogue may have been Jason Robards greatest role.Strother Martin plays his character to perfection,and his character was born to be a villain in this movie.In fact,the lead character in Despicable Me should have been formed around Strother Martin,and should have even looked like him.Martin may have been a B list co-star,but he was a GREAT B list co-star.And Stella Stevens was never better eye candy.Hogue is a miserable human being,with good reason,and in spite of himself he manages to attract this crowd of friends and acquaintances.Of course,a lot of his "friends" are directly related to him owning the only water hole on a stage line,and people with money or influence always have more "friends" than they really want.
Cable Hogue is a man of ideals that are just grand enough for him, as he stumbles upon a luck of a spring in the ground and makes it his own.Robards often has the good memory of his career of that as a character actor mostly, with memorable parts in Once Upon a Time in the West, All the Presidents Men, and lastly in Magnolia, among many many others.
Despite some of the darker undertones that come up from time to time, it might be Peckinpah's sweetest film, where a prostitute with a heart-of-gold like Hildy (amusing Stella Stevens) works just right, and the music by Jerry Goldsmith matches the mood every step of the way, notably in that opening scene with Hogue stumbling about and going into freeze-frame.
Sometimes the humor even gets a little dirty (how about that panty shot!), but it doesn't ring untrue.In one of the few times in Peckinpah's career where the producers knew well enough to let him alone to make his movie, The Ballad of Cable Hogue turned out as one of his better films, a testament to one of his pet subjects without the notorious angle of violence with it..
The movie's most embarrassing sequence is a montage of Cable and Hildie's time together, supposedly showing us the deep feelings they have for each other, and all to the sound of an unbelievably saccharine song, "Butterfly Mornings (!)." I'd like to think that Peckinpah was forced to add this song by greedy studio execs, but from what I read about the film's production in a biography of the director, he was given complete creative control.
The story is told of a poor prospector named Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) who's cowardly partners (Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones) left in the desert to die.
Jason Robards gives one of the best performances of his career as Cable Hogue, an iconoclast, desert rat, and shrewd opportunist, who sees his chance to prosper and takes it when he stumbles across a mudhole in the desert and turns it into a profitable oasis.Robards gets great support from all around him, especially David Warner as a lecherous preacher that becomes a kind of sidekick to Hogue and Stella Stevens as the girl Cable lusts after, but can't quite hold on to.Entertaining, fun, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes quite poignant, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue further elaborates on the central themes in previous as well as subsequent Peckinpah westerns, of changing times in the west at the turn of the century.
It's a character study, with the Hogue himself symbolizing the life and death of the old west.Peckinpah's favorite of his films, it appears (at least to me) he tried to replicate the feel of this three years later, in Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, with mixed results..
I really wanted to love this movie, and thought that I would, until it came to a close.The story is of a man abandoned in the desert by his two "partners" and left for dead, but who finds the only spring for many miles around right on a stagecoach route and sets up a rest stop and watering hole.
It's the story about a simple guy left for dead in the desert who manages to eventually make it big and forge friendships.As far as what I liked, I thought it was nice to see a Sam Peckinpah film where there wasn't much violence and no slow-motion death scenes.
Like a number of Peckinpah's westerns, the film pays respects to the passing of the 'old west': cars appear on the dusty stagecoach road, old debts are paid or forgiven, and Cable considers leaving the desert for good.
He also falls in love, with Hildy (Stella Stevens).Directed by Sam Peckinpah, who gave us The Wild Bunch, Cross of Iron, Straw Dogs and The Getaway.
Warners, in my opinion, blew it.Excellent pictorial CD by mail from: www.VareseSarabande.com BTW, As a point of interest, Director Sam Peckinpah of "The Wild Bunch" and "Ballad of Cable Hogue" previously had directed TV's "Gunsmoke.".
"The Ballad of Cable Hogue" is the perfect follow up film after the critical and box office success of 1969's "Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch".
After we first meet Cable Hogue (Jason Robards giving one of his BEST screen performances), his 'partners' shoot him for his water in the desert and leave him for dead.
This film gives us three great performances by Jason Robards, Stella Stevens and David Warner.
At that moment, Hildy's heart is devastated as she realizes that it's time to leave him.The tragedy of "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"'s romance is the impossible love between the hooker who wants to discover San Francisco and the old prospector who hates the town and manages his honest business in the desert.
What a poetic ending for a man who would have the honor to hear his own eulogy  And what a powerful significance to the film, probably the only one which 'stars characters actors' from Jason Robards, to Stella Stevens, Strother Martin, L.Q Jones, Slim Pickens, the "Ballad of Cable Hogue" is the delightful swan song of an era, a last tribute to a movie genre.And I join myself to honor Cable Hogue, the unsung hero of 'New Hollywood' and 'Cable Hogue' whose tenderness is like the link between the thrills of 'The Wild Bunch' and the passion between 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller', this is the Holy Trinity of the 'New Western' genre.
Movie fans who recall Sam Peckinpah as a writer and director of violent Westerns will see something quite different in "The Ballad of Cable Hogue".
The film, much like "The Wild Bunch" and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", makes a statement about the passing of the Old West, a favorite Peckinpah theme.
Sam Peckinpah is mostly known for "The Wild Bunch", but his smaller pictures tend to be better, more personal."The Ballad of Cable Hogue", which Peckinpah regarded as both a personal favourite and the most autobiographical of his films, is a 1970 Western which stars Jason Robards as Cable Hogue, a bearded prospector who sets up a stagecoach station at a watering hole out in the desert.
The Ballad of Cable Hogue Directed by Sam Peckinpah 1970 This movie has several things in common with "Once Upon a Time in the West": Similarities in plot i.e. guy marries a beautiful whore and tries to build his own remote desert transportation stop.
This film reminds us of what a good comedienne Stevens was, and gives a bit of a taste of what it would have been like if she had worked with Howard Hawks, as was at one point planned (for an adult comedy with Robert Redford and Steve McQueen).Jason Robards is also a lot of fun here, very similar character to the more famous "Cheyenne" in Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West." Cable Hogue is a saddle tramp, left for dead in the desert, who finds a water hole and exploits it for all it's worth.