Cat Ballou is a 1965 American western comedy film starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual role.

The supporting cast features Tom Nardini, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, and Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, who together perform the film's theme song, and who appear throughout the film in the form of travelling minstrels or troubadours as a kind of musical Greek chorus and framing device.

Catherine "Cat" Ballou, a notorious outlaw, is set to be executed in the small town of Wolf City, Wyoming.

Two banjo and guitar playing "Shouters", Professor Sam the Shade and the Sunrise Kid, sing the ballad of Cat Ballou and regale the audience with the tale of how she began her career of crime.

Some months prior, Catherine, then an aspiring schoolteacher, is returning home by train to Wolf City from finishing school.

Cat poses as a prostitute and confronts Sir Harry Percival, the head of the Wolf City Development Corporation.

[3][7] The film was shot on location in Colorado, including parts of Canon City and Texas Creek, as well as the ghost towns of Rosita and Buckskin Joe.

[11] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "a breezy little film" which "does have flashes of good satiric wit.

"[12] Variety wrote that the film "emerges middlingly successful, sparked by an amusing way-out approach and some sparkling performances.

"[13] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post praised the film as a "springy satire", adding, "What makes this fun is the style.

A 1970 pilot, written and produced by Aaron Ruben, featured Lesley Ann Warren as Cat, Jack Elam as Kid Shelleen and Tom Nardini repeating his role, while a 1971 pilot starred Jo Ann Harris as Cat, Forrest Tucker as Kid Shelleen and Lee J. Casey as Jackson Two-Bears.