The devil woman of Texas
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The devil woman of Texas |
| Original title | The Ballad of Josie |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1967 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andrew V. McLaglen |
| script | Harold Swanton |
| production | Norman MacDonnell |
| music | Frank De Vol |
| camera | Milton R. Krasner |
| cut |
Fred A. Chulack , Otho Lovering |
| occupation | |
| |
The Devil Wife of Texas (Original title: The Ballad of Josie ) is an American western comedy directed by Andrew V. McLaglen from 1967 with Doris Day in the lead role.
action
Wyoming around 1870: Little Sunny Minick returns home that evening and tells his mother Josie that his notoriously drunk father Whit will be home any minute - which is why they rush to clear away all breakable items. Armed with a billiard cue , Josie welcomes her violent husband. In the course of the following argument, Whit falls unhappy down the stairs and dies. At that moment the local sheriff appears and sees the dead Whit and Josie with the cue in hand. After Whit's funeral, Josie is charged with the murder of her good-for-nothing by a husband. She is acquitted, but her father-in-law insists on taking Sunny to Cheyenne because Josie cannot look after her son on her own.
In order to be able to bring Sunny back to her as soon as possible, Josie decides to earn her own living. With $ 1,000 she received from her father-in-law, she wants to re-manage her somewhat remote ranch. However, the rancher Jason Meredith advises her to sell the severely dilapidated ranch to her neighbor Arch Ogden, who has had Josie's pastureland for his cattle for a long time. Prosecutor Charlie Lord again encourages Josie to stick with her plan as the law is on her side. While Josie is preparing the house on her ranch, Jason tries again to dissuade her from her plan. Women are not able to raise livestock and he is worried about them. Angry, Josie throws him out of the house and then begins to cry. Feeling overwhelmed, she tries to get a job with a newspaper and a bank, but is always turned away and advised to work as a waitress in a local eatery. However, she soon got fed up with the waiter and quit.
The next day Jason offers her to take her in his carriage to see her son in Cheyenne. On the way they stop for a picnic and are joined by a flock of sheep. Once in Cheyenne, her father-in-law suggests that she run the household for him or work as an accountant. When Sunny tells her that he'd rather live with her and she sees a sheep's head hanging on the wall, Josie is more determined than ever to stand on her own two feet with her ranch. She exchanges her clothes for trousers, creates a flock of sheep and hires two farm workers as shepherds. Because sheep are allegedly ruining cattle grazing land, a grazing war breaks out between her and neighbor Arch Ogden. When Jason and his men want to round up the sheep to prevent an attack by Ogden, Josie gets a gun and tries to drive Jason away. Shortly afterwards, Ogden shows up with a couple of men and Jason is forced to take Josie's side. He and his men stay on Josie's ranch, while Ogden and his men besieged them.
News of the dispute eventually reaches District Attorney Charlie Lord, who traveled to Washington, DC to see that Wyoming is accepted as a state in the United States . Because he sees his political concern in danger from the guerrilla war, he travels back immediately. Meanwhile, Josie's ranch is still under siege by Ogden. When the shepherds tell Josie of a similar dispute between sheep and cattle breeders, which resulted in deaths, Josie is appalled and wants to give up sheep farming. Jason, however, wants to sit out the matter. He gives her a kiss and sends her to town for her own safety.
There the women angrily take to the streets under the leadership of the pension operator Annabelle Pettijohn. They demonstrate for Josie and demand more rights. When Ogden arrives and speaks loudly to the men of the city and blames the women for the current chaos, the women begin to hit the raging men with pool cues. Ogden then rides back to the ranch and sets Josie's stable on fire. A fight ensues between him and Jason. When the roof of the stable threatens to fall on Ogden, Jason saves his life. The women of the city have meanwhile been locked in the local prison. The returned Charlie Lord asks the sheriff in the morning to release her immediately. He also manages to get Ogden to end the grazing war and make Josie an offer. Ogden agrees to buy Josie's sheep and give her some of his cattle at a good price. Josie accepts his offer and exchanges her pants for clothes again. She and Jason get married, and Sunny is allowed to live with her again from now on.
background
The film structures were designed by Alexander Golitzen and Addison Hehr . The costumes of the female cast were designed by Jean Louis . The title song The Ballad of Josie is sung in the opening credits by Ron Dante . The film premiered on February 1, 1967 in the United States. In Germany, Das Teufelsweib von Texas was first released in cinemas on December 22, 1967. On March 28, 1987, the comedy was shown for the first time on German television.
Reviews
"What makes the movie a little appealing is the cleanliness and simplicity of Andrew V. McLaglen's direction," said Vincent Canby of the New York Times . For the lexicon of international films , The Devil's Wife from Texas was a "Western with some comical interludes and striving for emancipation elements". However, he shows "many clichés and a leading actress who is pale in this milieu", which is detrimental to the "entertainment value". According to Cinema, the fact that a woman emancipates herself as a cowgirl is a “nice idea”, but in the end the film is “so stale that nobody wants to hear it”. The conclusion was: "Scratched, but a little bit sheepish."
The TimeOut film guide compared Doris Day's role with Lysistrata, the heroine of the Greek comedy of the same name . Although the western comedy had ideas, it was based on a "clumsy" script and was "even more laboriously staged". The Protestant film observer came to a similar assessment and described the film as a "parody that got a bit sluggish and miserable and in which the pleasure does not really want to set in".
German version
The German dubbed version was created in 1967 by Berliner Synchron GmbH. Klaus von Wahl was responsible for the dubbing and the dialogue script.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Josie Minick | Doris Day | Edith Schneider |
| Jason Meredith | Peter Graves | Michael Chevalier |
| Arch Ogden | George Kennedy | Hans Wiegner |
| Judge Tatum | Andy Devine | Franz Nicklisch |
| District Attorney Charlie Lord | William Talman | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| Sheriff Fonse Pruitt | David Hartman | Edgar Ott |
| Annabelle Pettijohn | Audrey Christie | Tina Eilers |
| Widow Renfrew | Elisabeth Fraser | Erna Haffner |
| Klugg | Timothy Scott | Joachim Pukass |
| Viola | Don Stroud | Christian Brückner |
| Alpheus Minick | Paul Fix | Paul Wagner |
Web links
- The Ballad of Josie in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Ballad of Josie at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Pictures of the film on cinema.de
Individual evidence
- ^ "Giving the film some fleeting interest is the purity and simplicity of Andrew V. McLaglen's direction." Vincent Canby : Local Double Bill . In: The New York Times , March 14, 1968.
- ↑ The Devil Wife of Texas. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 29, 2019 .
- ↑ cf. cinema.de ( Memento from October 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ "A comedy Western with ideas, but lumberingly scripted and even more laboriously directed." See The Ballad of Josie on timeout.com
- ↑ Evangelischer Film-Beobachter , Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 31/1968.
- ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de