The Ballad of Cable Hogue Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Sam Peckinpah
USA 1970

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.

****

Sam Peckinpah followed The Wild Bunch with this intimate, eccentric, appealing 1970 comedy, which treats many of the same themes in a soft, regretful mode. As Hogue, the tapped-out prospector who has no one but God to talk to in the middle of his yellow desert, Jason Robards puts his theatrical gestures to good use; he's rarely seemed so at home in a movie. But the film belongs to Stella Stevens, who, as the prostitute who moves in with Hogue, shows the kind of warmth and spirit that would have made her a major star had she not been pinioned by changing tastes. With David Warner, a devil's emissary who arrives on a big black motorcycle.

Excerpt from Dave Kehr's comments at the Chicago Reader located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: May 13th, 1970

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Warner - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC vs. Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

1) Warner - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - LEFT

2) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray RIGHT

Box Cover

Included with Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection (The Wild Bunch / Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid / Ride the High Country / The Ballad of Cable Hogue)

Distribution	Warner Home Video - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	2:01:08	2:01:20.940
Video	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.84 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.78:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 41,913,275,037 bytes Feature: 37,703,946,240 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	English (Mono), DUB: French (Mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 2048 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2048 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: DTS-HD Master Audio English 2049 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2049 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle • New featurette: The Ladiest Damn'd Lady with Stella Stevens • Peckinpah Trailer Gallery DVD Release Date: January 10th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters: 29	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 1.78:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 41,913,275,037 bytes Feature: 37,703,946,240 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle • 2005 featurette: The Ladiest Damn'd Lady with Stella Stevens (27:00) • Trailer (2:58) Blu-ray Release Date: June 6th, 2017 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Warner Archive transfer Sam Peckinpah's western-comedy-romance The Ballad of Cable Hogue to a dual-layered Blu-ray with a maxed out bitrate. You can see the improvement over the SD including a slight shift in colors (cooler - more natural skin tones), a rise in detail and a crisper/cleaner image. It is also in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This fun film looks quite good in 1080P. No issues with the HD video presentation.

The audio for "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" is transferred via a 2.0 channel 24-bit DTS-HD track. The western effects, horses and gunfire, come through with a pinch of depth. The score was composed by the great Jerry Goldsmith (Breakout, The Salamander, The Mephisto Waltz, Seconds, Hoosiers, The Blue Max, Breakheart Pass, The Omen) which includes Tomorrow is the Song I Sing (Main Title) and Wait for Me, Sunrise (End Title) performed by Richard Gillis. It sounds fine - clear and even in the lossless. There are optional English subtitles on this Region Free Blu-ray.

Nothing new in terms of supplements. Same extras as on the 2006 DVD - the commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle the 1/2 hour featurette/interview: The Ladiest Damn'd Lady with Stella Stevens and a trailer.

I tend to like this more each time I see it - Robards and Stevens are fabulous. It's a shame there are no new extras but it is a film I revisit occasionally and the Blu-ray a/v upgrade is significant, imo. Recommended!

***

ON THE DVD: An amusing, if weak, addition to the Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection package. The image quality is good bordering on being the best in the small collection. The transfer again sports an expected progressive and anamorphic rendering with decent detail. The audio sounded fine to me. Another commentary is offered with more colorful anecdotal Peckinpah stories. The featurette has a Stella Stevens interview. I suppose the DVD boxset overall leaves me a little under-whelmed, but possibly due to my over anticipation for the films with the transfers a notch below Warner's usual standard. Still you can't fault the extras or the price with the films looking better than I have seen to date. We still recommend the boxset if a shade less enthusiastically than we did initially.

Gary W. Tooze

DVD Menus

Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray