The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

A hobo accidentally stumbles onto a water spring, and creates a profitable way station in the middle of the desert.

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writers:

John Crawford, Edmund Penney,

Stars:

Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Robards	...	Cable Hogue
Stella Stevens	...	Hildy
David Warner	...	Joshua
Strother Martin	...	Bowen
Slim Pickens	...	Ben Fairchild
L.Q. Jones	...	Taggart
Peter Whitney	...	Cushing
R.G. Armstrong	...	Quittner
Gene Evans	...	Clete
William Mims	...	Jensen
Kathleen Freeman	...	Mrs. Jensen
Susan O'Connell	...	Claudia
Vaughn Taylor	...	Powell
Max Evans	...	Webb Seely
James Anderson	...	Preacher

Storyline

Double-crossed and left without water in the desert, Cable Hogue is saved when he finds a spring. It is in just the right spot for a much needed rest stop on the local stagecoach line, and Hogue uses this to his advantage. He builds a house and makes money off the stagecoach passengers. Hildy, a whore from the nearest town, moves in with him. Hogue has everything going his way until the advent of the automobile ends the era of the stagecoach.

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Plot Keywords:

stagecoach | water | desert | partner | prostitute | 

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Taglines:

Cable Hogue says..."Do unto others... as you would have others do unto you."

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Western

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 May 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Balladen om Cable Hogue

Filming Locations:

Apache Junction, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,716,946 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several crew members were fired from this film. It was the job of one crew member to have bus tickets back to Los Angeles for a fired crew member. If someone lost their job, Sam Peckinpah would ask, "Do you have a bus ticket for them?"

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Goofs

In the opening scene, Hogue confronts a Gila monster. In the first shot, the lizard is on a large rock with its front left paw slipping over the side of the rock. After cutting to a shot of Hogue, the view returns to the gila monster who is now standing in the middle of the same rock with no time or ability to have moved.

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Quotes

[Hogue points a rifle at his former partner]
Taggart: You ain't got the guts, Hogue.

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Connections

Referenced in That Moment: Magnolia Diary (2000)

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Soundtracks

"Wait for Me, Sunrise (End Title)"
Written and Performed by Richard Gillis
Arranged by Jerry Goldsmith

User Reviews

Desert Rose

It's not hard figuring out what went wrong at the box office with Sam Peckinpah's follow-up to "The Wild Bunch". Not many who thrilled to the bloody end of Pike and Dutch were ready for an amiable rom-com, even one that starts out with an exploding lizard. Jason Robards finding love and God in the desert? Doesn't sound too promising, does it?

The wonder of "The Ballad Of Cable Hogue", or rather the first of many wonders, is how well it plays. This is Peckinpah's finest moment, one that stands alongside the greatest westerns of all time. 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). Instead, Hogue finds water, the only water along a stage road connecting the towns of Gila and Deaddog, water enough to make him rich. He also finds wayward preacher Joshua (David Warner) and ravishing prostitute Hildy (Stella Stevens), who puts aside her Frisco dreams to shack up with Cable. But can Cable put aside his dream of revenge against Taggart and Bowen?

You really don't need to know any more about "Cable Hogue" than that going in. You probably shouldn't know any more, because Peckinpah's film is all the better for the way it catches you by surprise. It's a stunningly different and more positive film from the director of the nihilistic "Wild Bunch". At the same time, it works as a reverse examination of that earlier film's major themes. 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 is at heart a good man, irreverent but a man of faith. His shy yet penetrating gaze breaks your heart in scenes like the one where he asks a banker for a grubstake and offers himself sheepishly as collateral: "Well, I'm worth something, ain't I?" Yet he is locked into himself and his demons so deeply that he can't recognize Hildy for the saving grace she represents. Sam working from his inner demons, no doubt, but coming up with deeper and better answers than he usually did.

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, led by Stevens in a performance that plays up her sex appeal without shortchanging her inner vibrancy. Warner's preacher character is essential also; he's a lustful hypocrite but a genuine man of God in his cockeyed way. Sure, his idea of spiritual consolation to young women involves much groping – but he also speaks truly about what drives Hogue in the wrong direction.

"What do you call that passion that gnaws at the walls of your soul?" he asks Hogue. "That's the very passion that will nurture the dandelions above your grave."

We of course would rather see Cable have his confrontation with Taggart and Bowen, something which arrives in such a backasswards way it only adds to "Cable's" unique genius.

Peckinpah was not a natural comedic director, and there are bits of goofy awkwardness here and there. But even when it's more Benny Hill than Boot Hill, the prevailing anything-goes mood wins you over. Everywhere in this film, Peckinpah takes chances with what he can get across and what the audience will accept. This makes "Cable Hogue" a lot bolder than the standard bloodbath.

Watching "Cable Hogue" offers a lot of iconoclastic fun, yet not without pushing you in uncomfortable directions. Whether or not you wind up happy with it, you will remember the ride, and I hope, find it as worthwhile as I did.