Cat Ballou (1965)

  I don't know about a "she-bang to end all she-bangs" (what does that even mean?!) but this is a really cute Western comedy-quasi-musical.  I say quasi because the songs do not further the plot, merely provide a charming addition to it.

Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda) returns home from graduating schoolteacher college to find her father (John Marley) being harassed by the local railroad.  They want the land his ranch is based on and are willing to go to extreme lengths to get it, including hiring tough guy Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin) to intimidate the Ballous.  Cat does her level best to protect her father, bringing around wanted criminals Clay (Michael Callan), and Uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman), as well as sending off for dime-novel hero and gunfighter Kid Shelleen (also Lee Marvin).  Unfortunately, Clay and Jed are cattle rustlers and Shelleen is a near-useless drunk.

Lee Marvin won an Oscar for this, I will be charitable, fluff over Richard Burton for The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Laurence Olivier for Othello.  This was clearly some sort of consolation prize for having missed out on a previous film since his performance here isn't even as good as he was in Paint Your Wagon.  Lee Marvin's body of work overall is extremely impressive and I'm not saying the man didn't deserve an Oscar, just not for this.  If he was going to get one, I'd say it should have been Best Supporting Actor for The Big Heat in 1953.  That's my two cents.

The movie isn't art by any stretch of the imagination, but it is fun and the songs, sung by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, are catchy.  Sometimes that's all you need/want.