As traveling troubadours “The Sunrise Kid” and “Professor Sam the Shade”, Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, respectively, sing parts of the title song throughout the film.

Catherine “Cat” Ballou, portrayed by Jane Fonda in the 1965 comedy western “Cat Ballou”, was the daughter of a rancher. She returns to the ranch. On her journey home, she unwittingly helps a man accused of stealing cattle escape the hangman’s noose.

Once home, Cat discovers that her father, Frankie, refuses to sell his property to a shady corporation. She hires a gunman to protect him. The protector turns out to be a drunk. Frankie is murdered.

Now, she is in trouble with the law for aiding an escaped criminal, and is being pursued by the henchman of a murderous corporation. Also seeking to avenge her father, she turns criminal, falling in with the man she helped escape and one of the man’s relatives who also participated in the rescue. They rob a train. At the end of the film, she is rescued by her two desperado companions.

Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed “Belle” Starr was known as “The Queen of the Oklahoma Outlaws” in the mid-to-late 1800’s. Lura Bullion joined the infamous “Wild Bunch” gang around the turn of the 20th Century. Mary Katherine “Big Nose Kate” Haroney became a prostitute in the mid-1800’s and later the common-law wife of John Henry “Doc” Holliday, who participated in the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral.” She once burned down a building to help Holliday escape confinement.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org