The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) on Netflix
Cable Hogue's partners Taggart and Bowen take his water and leave him in the Arizona desert. He finds a spring on a stagecoach route and builds a way station there.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Around 1905, Cable Hogue waits in the Arizona desert while his partners Taggart and Bowen scout for water. The pair seize what is left and abandon him. Four days on, close to death, he comes upon a muddy pit, digs, and finds an abundant spring. No other water lies on the stagecoach route between the two nearest towns, so he settles there to build a business. His first paying customer is Joshua, a traveling preacher whose church rests on his own revelation and who questions Cable's right to the spring. Cable rides to Dead Dog to register the claim, where the townsfolk mock him; he buys the two acres, is tossed out of the stage office, and talks a doubtful bank president into staking him $100. He spends a night with Hildy, a prostitute from the saloon.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Filming The Ballad of Cable Hogue was plagued by poor weather, Sam Peckinpah's renewed drinking and his firing of 36 crew members; when weather stopped shooting, the cast and crew drank at a local bar until the tab reached $70,000.
- The chaotic shoot of The Ballad of Cable Hogue wrapped 19 days over schedule and $3 million over budget, which terminated Sam Peckinpah's tenure with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.
- Sam Peckinpah was the first choice to direct the hits Deliverance (1972) and Jeremiah Johnson (1972), but his alienation of Warner Brothers left him few directing jobs, and he went to England to make Straw Dogs (1971).
- Sam Peckinpah shot The Ballad of Cable Hogue six days a week while simultaneously editing his earlier film The Wild Bunch on Sundays.
- Peckinpah supposedly hired singer-songwriter Richard Gillis to write the film's songs after hearing him sing in a local bar; each main character has a theme, including Hogue's "Tomorrow is the Song I Sing".
- The film later inspired Welsh musician John Cale's 1975 song "Cable Hogue" on his album Helen of Troy and Tucson band Calexico's song "Ballad Of Cable Hogue" on their 2000 album Hot Rail.
