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Western story about a defiant wife who leaves her husband to take up riding with outlaws.Western story about a defiant wife who leaves her husband to take up riding with outlaws.Western story about a defiant wife who leaves her husband to take up riding with outlaws.
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Sandy McPeak
- Ben
- (as Sandy Kevin)
James Hampton
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I just rewatched The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
Plot In A Paragraph: After being released from prison where he was serving a sentence for murder, Jay Grobart (Reynolds) leads a band of three other men in robbing a train of its Wells Fargo cargo of $100,000. In their escape from the scene, they are forced to take kidnapp Mrs. Catherine Willard Crocker (Sarah Miles) As Jay, the leader, embarks on his next mission, Harvey Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb) the investigator for Wells Fargo, has a posse of men on their trail. That posse includes Willard Crocker (George Hamilton) a mining executive who is the kidnapped woman's husband.
This is a real slow burning movie, Burt delivers a terrific performance which is allowed time to breathe and unfurl with grace and sensitivity, even exceeding his most celebrated role in Deliverance in terms of range. Grobart is not a traditional hero and it was brave of the actor to accept it just as he was becoming America's favourite movie star. Grobart is a flawed man haunted by demons past and present. He is inherently a good man blind to race and social divisions yet lured to violence on a whim in response to acts of aggression against the women in his life. It would be quite awhile before the actor again disappeared it a role so completely They iconic characters he portrayed in succeeding films are almost impossible to consider as mutually exclusive from Reynolds' own larger-than-life persona.
Unfortunately, this movie was plagued with production problems, including a death (which from time to time, resurfaces with Burt being accused of murder) and audiences stayed away in droves.
Plot In A Paragraph: After being released from prison where he was serving a sentence for murder, Jay Grobart (Reynolds) leads a band of three other men in robbing a train of its Wells Fargo cargo of $100,000. In their escape from the scene, they are forced to take kidnapp Mrs. Catherine Willard Crocker (Sarah Miles) As Jay, the leader, embarks on his next mission, Harvey Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb) the investigator for Wells Fargo, has a posse of men on their trail. That posse includes Willard Crocker (George Hamilton) a mining executive who is the kidnapped woman's husband.
This is a real slow burning movie, Burt delivers a terrific performance which is allowed time to breathe and unfurl with grace and sensitivity, even exceeding his most celebrated role in Deliverance in terms of range. Grobart is not a traditional hero and it was brave of the actor to accept it just as he was becoming America's favourite movie star. Grobart is a flawed man haunted by demons past and present. He is inherently a good man blind to race and social divisions yet lured to violence on a whim in response to acts of aggression against the women in his life. It would be quite awhile before the actor again disappeared it a role so completely They iconic characters he portrayed in succeeding films are almost impossible to consider as mutually exclusive from Reynolds' own larger-than-life persona.
Unfortunately, this movie was plagued with production problems, including a death (which from time to time, resurfaces with Burt being accused of murder) and audiences stayed away in droves.
(1973) The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
WESTERN
Burt Reynold's stars as Jay who successfully lead a group of train robbers, but along the way while escaping with horses waiting, bumps into a girl Sarah Miles as Catherine on a horse, who witnessed the whole escapade while waiting for a train to get married to her fiance, Crocker played by George Hamilton. Except that the group decide to drag her along as a hostage as they escape. And during this journey she brings out the best and the worst of them with Jay holding his own, and being the most civilized out of the whole bunch, and as the film progresses even more, he tells her about a Native American woman he used to be with by the name of "Cat Dancing"- hence the title! Based on a novel written by Marilyn Durham and while watching it showed some realistic approaches if people were to be traveling in the wild west eg: putting mud on the face to prevent it from sunburning or a dip into some water to prevent dehydration! But with a more than two hours of running time is a very good movie is often slow, but as a movie holding it's own, is still interesting to say the least!
Burt Reynold's stars as Jay who successfully lead a group of train robbers, but along the way while escaping with horses waiting, bumps into a girl Sarah Miles as Catherine on a horse, who witnessed the whole escapade while waiting for a train to get married to her fiance, Crocker played by George Hamilton. Except that the group decide to drag her along as a hostage as they escape. And during this journey she brings out the best and the worst of them with Jay holding his own, and being the most civilized out of the whole bunch, and as the film progresses even more, he tells her about a Native American woman he used to be with by the name of "Cat Dancing"- hence the title! Based on a novel written by Marilyn Durham and while watching it showed some realistic approaches if people were to be traveling in the wild west eg: putting mud on the face to prevent it from sunburning or a dip into some water to prevent dehydration! But with a more than two hours of running time is a very good movie is often slow, but as a movie holding it's own, is still interesting to say the least!
John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Humphry Bogart, James Coburn, Lee Marvin, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford -- well maybe not Harrison Ford -- created unique male personas on film and Burt Reynolds joins them. Cat Dancing is a 70's road film on horseback and Reynolds' performance shines with personal subtlety among other luminaries including Jack Warden, George Hamilton, Lee J. Cobb, and Jay Silverheels (AKA Tonto). The story line is not predictable and angst threads through the script. True love, what is it? The answer rolls down from the screen in Cat Dancing while Burt bites the dust and recovers. The Western by the 1970's was fading, but Cat Dancing proves the genre can be fresh in any decade.
This movie came up tonight on the television and though I had not seen it, I had certainly heard of it. The reviews almost scared me off, but happily I read some favourable ones and and took a chance.
Bert Reynolds gave a first class performance with subtlety, dignity and a quiet strength. His portrayal of a flawed but somewhat principled man with an unfortunate past was excellent and made me want to know more of the back story which I'm sure was in the book. Maybe it is that the book was written Marilyn Durham, and that the screenplay was by Eleanor Perry that gave the movie it's strength and tenderness ?
The treatment of the Shoshone and other First Nation people was very good; they spoke in full sentences with humour intelligence and wit. They came through as the three dimensional people they are instead of the mere shadows that most movies of the time showed them in; something long over due in Hollywood.
There were many good performances here, it is a movie worth seeing and deserves a serious place in the genre.
Bert Reynolds gave a first class performance with subtlety, dignity and a quiet strength. His portrayal of a flawed but somewhat principled man with an unfortunate past was excellent and made me want to know more of the back story which I'm sure was in the book. Maybe it is that the book was written Marilyn Durham, and that the screenplay was by Eleanor Perry that gave the movie it's strength and tenderness ?
The treatment of the Shoshone and other First Nation people was very good; they spoke in full sentences with humour intelligence and wit. They came through as the three dimensional people they are instead of the mere shadows that most movies of the time showed them in; something long over due in Hollywood.
There were many good performances here, it is a movie worth seeing and deserves a serious place in the genre.
Rich, married Catherine Crocker (Sarah Miles) is riding along the rail tracks and happens upon a man cutting the telegraph wire. It turns out to be a train robbery. Jay Grobart (Burt Reynolds) leads the group of criminals and they take her prisoner. She claims to be running away from her abusive husband Willard (George Hamilton). Harvey Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb) is in pursuit. Grobart's great love is his late native wife Cat Dancing.
The potential is there for a great western. Reynolds struggles as a quiet brooding lead. In being reserved, he starts to fade. He can't fall back on his gregarious nature. There are ways to make him compelling but that is missing from this movie. I would have loved to see him speak a native language when he's with the Native Americans. The British actress Sarah Miles has a standoffish quality. The story has plenty of violence but it's not as brutal as it needs to be. Most of this has to be the director's fault. The potential is never fully realized.
The potential is there for a great western. Reynolds struggles as a quiet brooding lead. In being reserved, he starts to fade. He can't fall back on his gregarious nature. There are ways to make him compelling but that is missing from this movie. I would have loved to see him speak a native language when he's with the Native Americans. The British actress Sarah Miles has a standoffish quality. The story has plenty of violence but it's not as brutal as it needs to be. Most of this has to be the director's fault. The potential is never fully realized.
Did you know
- TriviaSarah Miles' found her business manager/boyfriend David Whiting dead in her Gila Bend, AZ, motel room during the film's location shooting. The death made headlines around the world. "Time Magazine" on 26 March 1973 reported, "Pills and bottles were scattered around his body, and bruises and a bloody cut were found on his head". The night prior to the discovery of his body Whiting had allegedly assaulted Miles after she had come back late at night from a birthday party for Burt Reynolds. Reynolds let Miles stay in his room for protection. She testified that Whiting had "got ahold of me and began throwing me about the room". Reynolds, when he saw Miles after her nanny, who had overheard the confrontation, had called him, was quoted as saying, "Christ Almighty, you're a mess!" Miles' injuries allegedly included a bloody nose, a bruised forehead and a cut lip. The official cause of Whiting's death as ruled by the coroner/county medical examiner was suicide by overdose of the drugs Methaqualone, Benadryl and a Librium-type drug. Reportedly, Miles and Reynolds did not wish to testify at the inquest one month after the incident but were forced to when Whiting's mother, Mrs. Louise Campbell, successfully obtained a court order compelling them to testify. According to the "Time" article, " . . . a pharmacologist hired by Whiting's mother said that the amount of methaqualone in Whiting's bloodstream need not have been fatal. Left unexplained was how Whiting's blood came to be on a pillowcase, towel, tissues and the washbasin in his own room, as well as on a blue sweater he had apparently been wearing. Also unaccounted for were the severe cut on the back of his head and scratches on his stomach, chest and knuckles." It was later revealed that Miles and Whiting had been having an affair, and this, together with the resulting publicity, contributed to the disintegration of her marriage to Robert Bolt.
- GoofsDuring the opening credits Catherine is riding "side saddle" but her legs are both on the right side of the horse, which is the "wrong" side for an English ladies' saddle. The film is flopped in this shot as later she has her legs on the proper side.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: 11th Anniversary Show (1973)
- How long is The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing?Powered by Alexa
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