Le fantôme de Cat Dancing

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.

This was a well scripted movie with two leading stars in Burt Reynolds and Sarah Miles who through the movie gradually come to understand one another's predicament and fall in love. Burt plays an ex military man named Jay Grobart who leads a small group of men on a successful train robbery, and while in the midst of their escape in to the wilds, they run across a petite and debonair well dressed Catherine Crocker played by Sarah Miles.

We eventually find out why Ms. Crocker is riding alone in the wilderness and also why Jay Grobart robbed the bank. Burt plays a tough gang leader who won't tolerate any insubordination from his crew or from the woman on the run.

Through the hills and streams they all run hiding from the posse led by Lee J Cobb and also in hot pursuit is the train company's executive played by Anthony Perkins who just happens to be trailing his wife who has seemed to gone missing whilst out for a casual ride on her $3,000.00 priceless steed.

Indians also come in to the picture, and one by one the gang members turn on one another with their expected prize being the warmth of an evening with their travelling companion Ms. Crocker. Bad Burt keeps them all at bay, and slowly falls for Ms. Crocker himself.

The climax may be predictable (I am referring to the movie's ending not Burt and Sarah's steamy relationship) but I love a good ending and I put this one in that enviable category. Kudos to the cast of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing for a good performance and to their director Richard C Sarafian, who has given us other classics such as Bugsy, The Crossing Guard and one of my personal favourites, Bound.

It amazes me how many people see this movie as a B grade western! I found it to be an excellent adaptation of a decent western genre book that happened to have been written by a WOMAN. The casting could not have been more perfect in that each person played their character so well. And the characters were a 'spoof' at the cliché of melodrama types that most westerns portray anyway. This is a story about how people LIE to themselves and end up not only ruining their own lives, but harming those near them too. And how honesty comes hard and maybe late, but can come before one dies. The only flaw of the movie is that it didn't tell the full tale of Cat Dancing and the tragedy that befell her, Burt's character and their children's lives. On the other hand, I liked the movie ending better than the book's.

This exciting Western is a reasonable engaging tale in which a wealthy woman traveling by herself on horseback leaves her husband to take up riding with outlaws who have robbed a safe . At first , after a chance encounter , a beautiful lady called Catherine Crocker (Sarah Miles) recently escaped from her abusive hubby becomes involved with a band of train robbers led by Jay Grobart (Burt Reynolds , this was one of his first romantic love-stories on the screen) and three other men : Dawes (Jack Warden) , Billy Bowen (Bo Hopkins) and an Indian named Charlie Bent (Varela) who have carried out a robbing a train of its Wells Fargo cargo of $100,000 . In their escape from the crime scene they are chased by a motley group of bounty hunters . Jay has the ordinary problems of managing the three bandits , Dawes and Billy in particular who want to rape the attractive lady . In meantime , they are pursued by a posse led by the tough Harvey Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb), including a mining executive , Willard Crocker (George Hamilton) who results to be Catherine's husband . But the go-riding gets harder , as the bunch fall out among themselves and things go worse .

The plot is plain and simple , a dangerous gang on the lam are forced out of circumstance to take along an elegant lady -who holds a dark secret- , against her will , as she , like them , is running away ; while she is harassed and finally falls in love with the main star . As the picture reveals itself to be a romance and a throughly love story . The phrase "Cat Dancing" of the film and source novel's title refers to the name of the first wife of this movie's central character Jay performed by Burt Reynolds . It's a love on the run in which the protagonists , Jay/Burt and Catherine/Sarah , along the journey learn more about what is under the surface , and both of whom start to fall for each other ; as their tragic pasts coming close to making us care . Good interpretation all around . Burt Reynolds gives a passable acting as an outlaw on the run after avenging his spouse's murder and who has a posse on his trail . Burt Reynolds and Jack Warden apparently insisted on doing their own stunts for this movie . That's why the production filming was shut-down for a week when the movie's star Burt Reynolds was injured on the set from a stunt fight with Jack Warden . This movie is one of a number of screen westerns that Burt Reynolds made during the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s , these movie westerns include Navajo Joe (1966) ; 100 rifles (1969) ; Sam Whisky (1969) and this one . Sarah Miles is acceptable as Catherine Crocker , she was only cast in the lead role just a short time before production started shooting . Support cast is pretty good , such as : the good-looking George Hamilton as Willard Crocker , Lee J . Cobb as Harvey Lapchance , the investigator for Wells Fargo who has a posse of men on their command . Furthermore , Bo Hopkins , Robert Donner , Nancy Malone and Jay Silverheels who played several times the Indian role . Michel Legrand was originally hired to compose the musical score for the film but studio executives informed him that his score was not what they felt the film needed and that he was being dismissed, being replaced by the great John Williams . It packs a colorful and evocative cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr.

The motion picture was professionally directed by Richard C Sarafian , though Steven Spielberg William Norton and Brian G. Hutton both declined offers to direct this movie , as Sarafian became this movie's director after the original director left the project . Sarafian was a good craftsman . While employed as a reporter in Kansas City , he met the director, Robert Altman, who hired Sarafian as his assistant. Sarafian has a fruitful career making TV episodes and films and directing a classic iconic movie : Vanishing Point¨ (1971) , as his car chase sequence served as inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (2007) . Richard portrayed two real-life Mafia figures: Jack Dragna in ¨Bugsy¨ (1991) and Paul Castellano in ¨Gotti¨ (1996). And directed a lot of dramas and thrillers as ¨Gangster Wars¨ , ¨The next man¨, ¨Solar Crisis¨, ¨Run Wild , Run Free¨, ¨Terror at Black falls¨, ¨Fragment of Fear¨ , ¨Street Justice¨ and ¨Eye of the tiger¨

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.