The Ballad of Josie for Doris Day marked the beginning of the end of her film career. Her agent/husband/svengali Martin Melcher forced her into a whole lot of mediocre films because he knew and she would find out that their wealth was something done with mirrors. She had to keep working.

Not that it's a bad film, just not a terribly good one. It's populated with a whole good cast of veteran players and her leading man in this is Peter Graves. Graves is someone who should have had a good career as a screen lead in his youth. Unfortunately he got to do a lot of bad science fiction movies(and some real classic good ones) which didn't help. He opted for the small screen instead.

William Talman makes his farewell appearance here. He's a big shot politician who sees his dream of statehood in Wyoming going down the tubes because of the controversy of Doris Day trying to raise sheep in what has been traditionally cattle country.

Doris's husband Robert Lowery is killed in the first few minutes of the film. She has to raise her son alone now and lots of professions and trades were closed to her as they were to women back in that day. She decides to become a shepherd as she's told it doesn't have the overhead expense of cattle on the 460 acres she's inherited.

That starts a whole big controversy with a shooting range war about to break out.

Granted that women were kept barefoot and pregnant in those days, but it's hard to believe that Doris might not have heard SOME discussion about the cattle and sheep problem and why there was this unofficial line of demarcation in Arapahoe County, Wyoming.

Fans of Doris will want to see her in anything though.

The main reason for seeing 'The Ballad of Josie' in the first place for me was Doris Day, having been of late on a completest quest seeing all the films of hers not yet seen.

Despite being one of her lowest rated films here (along with 'Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?' and 'Caprice'),being one of her less well critically received films and being disliked by Day herself, 'The Ballad of Josie' isn't that bad. At least from respectful personal opinion, though it does have a good deal wrong with it and it was made during a rather rocky period of Day's film career. Of course it is among the weaker end of her overall films but it is better than 'Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?', 'Lucky Me', 'Starlift', 'The West Point Story' (aka 'Fine and Dandy') and 'Tunnel of Love', all but one of which rated higher.

As is the case with all her films, even her lesser ones, Day is the reason to see the film in the first place and also the best thing about it. She does a very good job, having a balance of charm and feistiness. 'The Ballad of Josie' is a good-looking film too, not exactly evocative but full of rustic attractive colours and handsomely designed production values shot beautifully.

Regarding the music, it is pretty excellent. It is cleverly orchestrated and rousing. The title song is a lovely and memorable one, though, despite Don Costa singing it well, there was a missed opportunity regarding Day not singing it. Was mixed on the supporting cast but felt that Elizabeth Fraser beguiled the screen whenever she appeared, Andy Devine clearly has fun and brought some much needed authenticity and John Fiedler is amusing.

However, not all the supporting cast come off well, suffering from characters that are not particularly interesting or used well. Peter Graves has a bland uninteresting role and plays it just as much, while George Kennedy's character is underwritten and underused (although it is a kind of role that Kennedy is perfect for and he does his best with what he's given). Having Andrew V. McLaglen on board as director promised a lot, being a veteran of the western genre. The simplicity of the direction is to be admired, but too much of the time it was a case of getting the job done but it comes over as workmanlike.

Sadly the story is often very dull, narratively it is as thin as a thin piece of tissue and in the more less than eventful parts the pace is sluggish. The script is tonally somewhat muddled, with some frequent and too often tiresome attempts at humour that never seems to fit and the more western-oriented parts lack grit. Despite looking good, 'The Ballad of Josie' never looks evocative with a lot of it looking too clean, too nice and too newly fresh.

Overall, a long way from a disaster but Day did much better in her career and deserved better as well. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This is a decent if typical 60's comedy that could have been better if it had less focus on gimmicky cliches and site gags and more character development. The widowed Doris Day gets involved in sheep ranching in hopes of getting her son back who has gone to live with his paternal grandfather. This stirs up the populas of chauvanistic men against her but stirs up the other local women before some minds of the men get changed.

The dependable Peter Graves joins MacRae, Hudson, Garner and Taylor as a memorable leading man, initially just trying to protect her and eventually fully supporting her as he encourages her to fight against the big cattle ranchers who are fighting her for use of the cattle grazing land she has inherited. It's a fight against corruption as well as for women to own property,

George Kennedy (who would win an Oscar for the same year's "Cool Hand Luke"),Andy Devine, William Talman and John Fiedler are among the men with Kennedy as the heavy, and Audrey Christie as the town matriarch who helps stir up the others. There's so much potential for a modern period story of how women helped win the west, but the script weakens that potential.

Still, there's a lot to like here, and how can you ever say Do Dah to Day? Fortunately she does not have to sing the horrible theme song over the credits, and as much as she apparently dislike the script, she makes the most of it all, particularly in a scene where she spends a day working in a busy restaurant catering to the cattlemen, catching fly paper in her hair.

Doris had worse films at the time that she didn't want to do ("Caprice" and "Where were you When the Lights went Out?"),So in spite of the fact that this supposedly was so bad that it ended her film career, that is not so. It may have been limited to neighborhood theaters rather than get the big movie palaces, but it looks good for its natural vistas and Day still looks good, even in dungarees.