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The Ballad of Cable Hogue (IB Tech Print)

Sandwiched between The Wild Bunch & Straw Dogs in the director’s filmography, Sam Peckinpah’s The Ballad of Cable Hogue goes in an unexpected direction, eschewing violence in favor of humor to create a subtle, light-hearted & laid back tribute to the dying Old West. A pitch-perfect Jason Robards stars as a bedraggled prospector, betrayed & left for dead in the desert, whose luck turns around upon discovering water. There he’ll turn a simple spring into a thriving business with the help of a wandering preacher (David Warner) and a jovial prostitute (Stella Stevens), eagerly awaiting the day when his disloyal former partners (L.Q. Jones & Strother Martin) might stop by his watering hole.

“Sam Peckinpah’s The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a splendid example of the New Western. It’s also a fine movie, a wonderfully comic tale we didn’t quite expect from a director” – Roger Ebert

Ariel Schudson discusses The Ballad of Cable Hogue on the New Beverly blog.

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