Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Alex da Silva Jason Robards plays the title character. He's a drifter who's left for dead in the Nevada desert. After 4 days, the unthinkable happens. He finds water. From this discovery, he sets up a water station for stagecoach traffic and waits for his 2 pals who left him for dead to one day turn up so he can exact revenge. In the meantime, self-appointed minister David Warner (Joshua) and prostitute Stella Stevens (Hildy) alternate as his companions in his lonely existence. One day, an automobile turns up… This film is a comedy that is funny in parts. Robards is a grumpy sort of character that you can laugh at during his initial social interactions whilst Warner is hilarious as a devious preacher with nothing more than tits on his mind. In one standout scene, he starts groping a married woman who is grieving a personal loss. His technique is to be noted – I've never seen that on film before. It reminds you that this is a 70s film. It's all about breasts. However, set against this are the sped up sections a la Benny Hill. Not funny. That technique only works for Benny Hill and his scantily clad women chase sequences. Thinking about it, Robards offers himself as collateral at the beginning of the film to the bank manager. The film could have taken a different direction if this avenue was explored. We could have had the first homosexual western, and with Warner's perverted vicar, this could have been the first great Western porno. With sped up comedy sequences.The film is OK, let down by an unconvincing relationship with Stella Stevens. No way would she be interested in Robard's tramp of a figure. The film also has a very peculiar ending that just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the film and comes out of nowhere. Robards seems to be out of character for this sequence. Finally, there is that blasted awful song about a 'butterfly morning' - what a load of rubbish!

fullbug I was expecting to see a serious western. Cable Hogue does deliver with that aspect, when a down on his luck drifter discovers a water source on a stagecoach route and turns it into a going concern. The movie also depicts the main characters romantic pursuit of a young woman who is looking for a sugar-daddy in order to escape her means of prostitution. 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. But if you're looking for a interesting story with a great cast and some comedic overtones...then this movie will deliver.

funkyfry Peckinpah's "Ballad" isn't any kind of masterpiece, but do we go to the cinema every time hoping for something totally unforgettable? This is a nice fun film especially for those who enjoy westerns and don't mind a bit of a laugh at the genre. However, the film takes its characters fairly seriously (at least, it's title character) and it does manage to deliver a story with plenty of humanity and warmth.There are some scenes where I feel like the camera is just sort of leering at Stella Stevens, and I felt a bit uncomfortable about that. I mean she's gorgeous, but you don't have to zoom right in on her crotch to convince us. Nevertheless Stevens' performance is winning, especially in a Peckinpah movie where women are usually given a very short end of the stick. 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. His cynicism and selfishness will take him only so far, before he decides to abandon it all and run off with sexy Stevens. David Warner also provides memorable support as a kind of con-man preacher, although I had trouble understanding his character's motivation (perhaps he truly was supposed to be insane?)

Cristi_Ciopron More then a decade ago, when I was a young cognoscente, not yet in love with Mme. Woolf and her stylish literary modernism, nor with Maria Lazariu—so, more then a decade ago, in '96, as a young dashing cognoscente, I have been charmed by this comedy. I did find it a quite sexy movie, funny and what not. In that delightful uncut version, Mrs. Stevens was indeed a girl to be watched. Otherwise, CABLE is a rather sour satire about a looser—quite like the later ROY BEAN. Mrs. Stevens was the babe of the showers or the bath scenes. No babe looks fairer in such circumstances; a cunning, malicious, inventive blonde, she was typecast as prostitute or as babe who takes a shower. A piece of sour revisionism, HOGUE was turned by Stella into a funny sex comedy and even a kind of a clumsy, oxymoron screwball.She always looked like a naughty but essentially accessible babe. In this sense, very late '60s—mere '70s girl. In a way, she looked too average and common to star in real screwballs (apart from the fact that the genre itself was abolished); but she had the charm to turn a satirical western into some kind of a screwball. She was noticeable.Stella Stevens is for me one of the essential actresses—like Mimi Rogers, Eva Ionesco, Deborah Caprioglio, Rene Russo, Alexandra Moen, María Conchita Alonso, Stefania Sandrelli, Claudia Koll , Serena Grandi , Virginia Madsen, Jodie Foster, Kim Novak, Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer.