Square Dance

By J.C.

THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING

Directed by RICHARD C. SARAFIAN

Screenplay by ELEANOR PERRY

Here is a movie that hymns the joys of a woman's subjugation to a man. As the standoffish wife of a rich rancher (George Hamilton), Catherine Crocker (Sarah Miles) runs away from home one day smack into a train robbery. The desperadoes, making off with the loot, take a fancy to Catherine's horse. Since Catherine refuses to dismount, she too is borne off into the wilderness.

Two of the bad guys (Jack Warden and Bo Hopkins) naturally have a fierce letch for her. The third desperado, a stronger and more reserved type named Jay Grobart (Burt Reynolds), intercedes on behalf of her honor. This causes all sorts of fraternal tensions during the trek across country, leading to violence, death and a highly unlikely romance. The affair is finally consummated when Jay sweeps the adoring Catherine up in his arms and mutters, "You are the god-damnedest woman I ever met," as he bears her off to bed in the hotel of a deserted mining town.

Eleanor Perry's script does not have the funk to be exciting or enough true spirit to transcend the wind-blown banalities of the plot. Most bothersome is the conception of Catherine as a selfish, useless whiner who is brought to her senses and full womanhood through the ministrations of Grobart. Even if Cat Dancing is meant to be only a kind of soap-oater fantasy, it is an especially demeaning one.

The movie does have some casual charms: a good, rugged sense of Western landscape by Director Sarafian and a rather fetching performance by Sarah Miles, less mannered than her recent appearance in The Hireling (TIME, July 9). Burt Reynolds is best of all. His is a silly, thankless part, but he plays it smoothly, with a strong undercurrent of ironic humor. He is a deft and winning actor, and it would be good to see him again in something like Deliverance, in a part that challenged his abilities rather than pampered them.

qed J.C.

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