It's interesting that The Ballad Of Cable Hogue was made directly after the savage The Wild Bunch as it's pretty far removed from the violence and nihilism of that film, even though it too deals with some of the same themes in a similar western setting.

The titular Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is left to die out in the harsh desert sun by his two backstabbing partners, Taggart (L.Q. Jones) and Bowen (Strother Martin). The two rats take off with his canteen and his horse and leave him there to fend for himself. Things don't look good for Cable, as he crawls around in the dirt babbling to God above and hoping for some sort of miracle to save his sorry skin, until his prayers are answered and he finds a fresh water spring.

Being a rather sharp cookie with a good head for business, Hogue knows that this spring happens to be just off the wagon trail and that it's a pretty popular path for people to take on their travels. He gathers his wits and sets up a little rest stop where he starts selling water to road weary travelers and soon enough he's built himself a nice little house out there and shacked up with a prostitute named Hildy (Stella Stevens) from the next town over.

Hogue isn't just out to make a quick buck, however. He still wants revenge against Taggart and Bowen and he knows that sooner or later their paths will cross again. After all, he's setup the only shop on one of the most popular wagon trails in the area, and logic would dictate that eventually they'll find their way to his rest stop.

What separates The Ballad Of Cable Hogue from the bulk of 'Bloody' Sam's work is that at its heart, the film is essentially a romantic comedy. Yes, it's set in the last days of the old west just like The Wild Bunch and it deals with prostitutes and tough, grizzled cowboys and all the rough edges that type of life entails but there really is a very obvious sweet side to this movie that we don't really see in any of the director's other films. The relationship between Hogue and Hildy might be a tad unorthodox and the film makes it very clear that the first thing on Hogue's mind isn't Hildy's conversation tactics or her bright insight into world events but they do grow to really love one another despite their seedy origins as a couple.

Things do tense up a fair bit towards the end of the movie when the revenge subplot comes closer to being resolved but even then, there are moments of genuine tenderness and comic relief scattered throughout. Hogue's interactions with a horny preacher man named Reverend Joshua Sloan (David Warner) is interesting as Hogue knows exactly what his game is. In a sense, these two womanizers are cut from the same cloth, and it's not the same cloth that you usually associate with a man of God either. Peckinpah regulars Slim Pickens, R. G. Armstrong and L. Q. Jones show up in the film in various capacities, and the theme of the old west getting even older and riding off into the twilight with the advent of the automobile lingering in the foreground make sure we know that we're still in Peckinpah country, even if we're in a kinder, gentler part of that land. The ending is interesting as, without wanting to spoil it, it does leave certain decisions as to the reality of the events we witness up to the viewer to decide. The movie doesn't spell everything out for us as simply as you might think and the argument could certainly be made that all of this is simply happening in Hogue's mind before he passes on. This adds some darkness to the movie that seems odd against the rather jovial atmosphere and border line slapstick comedy that we get in certain scenes, but that works in that it reminds us of the humanity of the lead character.

Despite plenty of production problems, the firing and hiring of certain crew members and some obvious flaws in the movie, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue remains an excellent film that demonstrates perfectly that there was more to Peckinpah than blood, guts and dope.

Video:

Warner Archive presents offers up an AVC encoded 1080p high definition 1.78.1 widescreen transfer for The Ballad Of Cable Hogue that looks really, really nice. Taken from a new 2k scan of the interpositive, this offers a substantial upgrade in picture quality over the previous DVD release. Some shots still look a bit soft due to the original cinematography but the vast majority of the film looks sharp, nicely detailed and very film like. There's very little print damage here outside of the odd white speck now and then, while skin tones and color reproduction both appear lifelike and natural. The transfer also offers up really strong black levels, nice depth and impressive texture. There's no evidence of noise reduction or edge enhancement resulting in an impressive film-like image from start to finish.