The Ballad of Josie (1967)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer:

Harold Swanton (written by)

Release Date:

1 February 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Western

Tagline:

IT'S QUICK-DRAW DORIS! (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

A young woman stirs things up in a western town by raising sheep instead of cattle, and organizing the local women to demonstrate for women's suffrage.

Plot Keywords:

Women's Suffrage | Range War | Sheepman | Pool Cue | Rancher

Cast

Doris Day	...	Josie Minick
Peter Graves	...	Jason Meredith
George Kennedy	...	Arch Ogden
Andy Devine	...	Judge Tatum
William Talman	...	District Attorney Charlie Lord
David Hartman	...	Sheriff Fonse Pruitt
Guy Raymond	...	Doc
Audrey Christie	...	Annabelle Pettijohn
Karen Jensen	...	Deborah Wilkes
Elisabeth Fraser	...	Widow Renfrew
Linda Meiklejohn	...	Jenny McCardle
Shirley O'Hara	...	Elizabeth
Timothy Scott	...	Klugg - Sheepherder
Don Stroud	...	Bratsch - Sheepherder
Paul Fix	...	Alpheus Minick, Whit's Father

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG (re-rating) (2006) | UK:U (original rating) | West Germany:6 (nf) | Sweden:11 | West Germany:6 | Australia:PG

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Doris Day wrote in her 1975 autobiography that this was one of the films that she did not want to do but was forced to do because her husband/manager Martin Melcher had power of attorney and signed her for it without her knowledge or consent. She called this a "second rate television western" that required her to get up at four-thirty every morning. However, she did enjoy the camaraderie of the cast members.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Josie gets caught on a roll of flypaper, the type of which was not invented until 50 years after the movie was set.

Quotes:

Jason Meredith: If I had thought about it, we would have stopped to eat north of the deadline.
Josie Minick: The what?
Jason Meredith: The deadline. We passed it about ten minutes back. Sheep to the south, cattle to the north.
Josie Minick: I don't know anything about a deadline.
Jason Meredith: Well, there's nothing complicated about it. You see, the cowmen opened up this territory and then the sheepmen tried to move in. Well, we had quite a debate. We burned a lot of powder and a lot of lead and we buried a few. And then finally we drew a line across the southeast section of the state. And the sheep stay on one side and the cattle on the other.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sometimes a Great Notion (1970)

Soundtrack:

Wait Till Tomorrow

It's a man's world

Today I have seen again this kind of a western comedy after several years. Now, after watching much more bad movies like this, I found this star-vehicle not funny. Sooner embarrassing, for example the scene when Miss Day is disturbing a meeting of the cattlemen. She comes in and drinks two brandy to demonstrate that she is hardboiled like George Kennedy. Or Peter Graves, off course. Oh boy, after five minutes she is completely drunken, just by two glasses of liquor. So we see, and Doris too: It's a man's world, and women have to respect men's opinion, shut up, wear skirts and kiss at last a big strong, guy like Peter Graves. Long winded, unfunny, boring, without any surprising scenes or comical dialogues: director Andrew V. McLaglen put on better movies, for example "McLintock!" or the great and outstanding pacifistic civil-war-western "Shenandoah". Don't waste your time!