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Support Your Local Sheriff [1969]


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An affectionate, wry Western spoof, with fine work by all the players
Review date: 2007-08-10 Rating: 8 out of 10

Jack Elam, with his one askew eye, was a guy who could watch two tennis matches at the same time without moving his head. As Jake, he's one of the reasons Support Your Local Sheriff! is as funny a Western spoof as it is. The other reasons include James Garner as Jason McCullough, Walter Brennan as Pa Danby, Joan Hackett as Prudy Perkins, Harry Morgan as Mayor Olly Perkins and Bruce Dern as Joe Danby.

McCullough drifts into the raw-boned, wide-open, gold rush town of Callender, Colorado, on his way, eventually, to Australia. He winds up taking the temporary job of sheriff, one in a long line of temporary office holders. Mayor Olly Perkins, who hires him, isn't exactly forthright about the short life spans of the previous sheriffs. McCullough comes up against the Danby clan, led by the mean old reprobate Pa Danby, when he arrests young Joe Danby for murder. And while Jason is staying at the mayor's home, he happens to fall for the mayor's daughter, Prudy, a young woman who seems to fall effortlessly into disasters. Providing back protection for McCullough is his deputy, Jake, who the day before was shoveling horse manure for a living.

Burt Kennedy was a longtime director of Westerns; he knows all the cliches and uses them with glee. What makes the movie work so well is the skill with which his actors do their jobs. Garner plays McCullough with laid-back cool, a wry man not to be rushed and, incidentally, very fast with a gun. Joan Hackett was a first-rate actress, and here she's not afraid to play a tomboy who always seems to put her worst foot forward. She's may fall face first in the mud but she comes up swinging. One of her best performances is in Will Penny. Walter Brennan just about steals the movie; it's a neck-and-neck tie between him and Garner. Brennan was a versatile, skilled actor who earned his three best supporting Academy Awards. He could play the home-spun preacher, the vicious outlaw, the hopping old coot. Here he's the fit-to-be-tied, rough-edged patriarch of a family of dim-witted sons. It's a nice performance. If you want to see just how good an actor Brennan was in his prime, watch him as Judge Roy Bean in The Westerner or as Old Man Clanton in My Darling Clementine. In another case of actorly theft, he effortlessly steals The Westerner from Gary Cooper. Bruce Dern as the remarkably stupid and dangerous youngest Danby adds to his list of off-center and funny portrayals.

Support Your Local Sheriff! is a well-crafted, affectionate spoof of Western cliches. It works so well, in my opinion, because it doesn't take itself seriously and because of some first-rate performances by any number of solid actors. The major drawback for me is the musical score. The movie is funny enough on its own that it doesn't need to have the music grab your lapels and tell you to laugh at a scene. The score does this over and over. The DVD is bare bones and, to my eye, looks fine.

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Reviews


Even better than I remembered it!
Review date: 2006-08-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a gem - and yet so few people know about it!

Wonderful script, excellent ensemble comedy acting and some wonderful sight gags, like the failed jail break. James Garner and Jack Elam make a wonderful team and the film had my whole family laughing out loud.

I can't resist one spolier...

The Sheriff takes the newly arested Joe Danby (Bruce Dern) into his half finished jail.

Sherrif: "That cell over there is yours."

Danby: (seeing that there is no wall and no bars) "You gotta be kidding me!"

Sheriff: "Now that's just what I said - but we'll just have to make do"

If you haven't seen this then you are in for a treat!


Wonderful comedy western
Review date: 2004-07-26 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film is like a comedy version of 'High Noon'. Sharp shooter Jason McCullough (James Garner)is on his way to Australia when he stops at a small gold-rush town and is persuaded to accept the job of sheriff. Nobody else wants the job because the whole town is being terrorised by the dreaded Danby gang. Garner captures one of the Danby gang and imprisons him in the cell at the sheriff's office, even though the cell has no bars, so he makes do with a white line painted on the floor. He thwarts various attempts by the other Danbys to escue their brother, and eventually succeeds in overcoming the entire gang. Meanwhile he is having a romance with accident-prone Joan Hackett. The best line in the film is where he is talking to Hackett's father (Harry Morgan) about his daughter. "She takes after her dear departed mother'Morgan says. "Oh, your wife died?" says Garner. "Nope"Morgan replies "she just departed." This is a very funny film, if you don't take westerns too seriously you should enjoy it.

60 for who and 40 for who?
Review date: 2004-07-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

Down through time it is easy to get the "support your local" films mixed up. This is the first. This is an educational film teaching you everything from sharing to proper gun pointing etiquette. Everyone has his or her favorite part in this movie. It contains sight gages and puns and jokes (some take time to think about.)
I will not go into detail incase you have not seen this as it is fun to watch the story unfold. However it is several overlapping stories tied together by Jason McCullough (James Garner) who has spent four years on his way to Australia and stops for a little gold prospecting. He needs a job to buy food while prospecting, as the position of sheriff is available.

O.K. I can not help it. He is handed the badge with a dent from a bullet in it.

James Garner: This must have saved his life.

Harry Morgan: It would have, if it weren't for all those other bullets.

This movie may not have all the DVD goodies you look for but it is DVD so it will last as long as the technology.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Harry Morgan
Jack Elam
Joan Hackett
James Garner
Walter Brennan

Creators:
James Garner (Primary Contributor)
Joan Hackett (Primary Contributor)
Harry Stradling Jr. (Cinematographer)
George W. Brooks (Editor)
Bill Finnegan (Producer)
William Bowers (Producer)
William Bowers (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: MGM Entertainment
Manufacturer: MGM Entertainment
EAN: 5050070021493
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-07-05
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 89 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1969-03-26
Language: English (Original Language)

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