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 prostitute 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.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
Peckinpah's gentlest, boldest, and perhaps most likable film to date.
– Roger Greenspun,
New York Times,
21 May 2003
fresh:
A fine movie, a wonderfully comic tale we didn't quite expect from a director who seems more at home with violence than with humor.