The Ballad of Josie

1967
Approved
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A widow stirs things up in a western town by raising sheep instead of cattle--and by organizing the local women to demonstrate for women's suffrage.A widow stirs things up in a western town by raising sheep instead of cattle--and by organizing the local women to demonstrate for women's suffrage.A widow stirs things up in a western town by raising sheep instead of cattle--and by organizing the local women to demonstrate for women's suffrage.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Doris Day wrote in her 1975 autobiography that this was one of the films that she did not want to do, but was forced to do because her husband and manager Martin Melcher had power of attorney, and signed her for it without her knowledge or consent. She called this a "second-rate television western" that required her to get up at 4:30 every morning. However, she did enjoy the camaraderie of her fellow cast members.

Goofs
Josie gets caught on a roll of flypaper, the type of which was not invented until 50 years after the movie was set.

Quotes
Jason Meredith: If I had thought about it, we would have stopped to eat north of the deadline.
Josie Minick: The what?
Jason Meredith: The deadline. We passed it about ten minutes back. Sheep to the south, cattle to the north.
Josie Minick: I don't know anything about a deadline.
Jason Meredith: Well, there's nothing complicated about it. You see, the cowmen opened up this territory and then the sheepmen tried to move in. Well, we had quite a debate. We burned a lot of powder and a lot of lead and we buried a few. And then finally we drew a line across the southeast section of the state. And the sheep stay on one side and the cattle on the other.

Connections
Featured in Biography: Doris Day: It's Magic (1998)

Soundtracks
The Ballad of Josie
Lyrics by Floyd Huddleston
Music by Don Costa
Sung by Ron Dante (as Ronnie Dante)

User reviews22

Review

Featured review

5/10

This is like a bad episode of Bonanza ...

... without Dan Blocker and with Doris Day. It's basically about a Wyoming woman (Doris Day) who finds herself minus a husband who shocks the men of the town by deciding to herd sheep instead of cows and by wearing (OH THE HORROR!) mens' pants!!! You know, I haven't seen this since I was twelve and I actually remembered it fondly until I saw it today. George Kennedy plays the cattle ranch owning buffoonish bully who wants Josie's sheep dead. Peter Graves is the love interest who threatens to do endearing things like spank Josie if she doesn't shut up. Andy Devine is still playing the same character he was thirty years before. William Talman, after so many years of losing to Perry Mason, plays a district attorney who is trying to get Wyoming statehood. In the end, the lesson seems to be "who needs the vote anyways ladies, and wear a dress if you want a man!" Oh, the sexism. I guess I just didn't notice this in 1970. And what's worse, this is what passed for feminism in 1970.

This is the problem with so many 60s films. They have one foot in the 50s, one foot in the 70s, and nothing works. This thing might just reach a 5/10 mainly because of its star power, even if those stars are being badly used.