Cinema Sunday: Support Your Local Sheriff!

My dad was a big fan of westerns. He loved classic TV westerns like Gunsmoke and Bonanza and classic westerns starring John Wayne. Late in his life when he was confined to his bed, he found a cable channel that ran nothing but old westerns all day.

My mom had more of an affinity for more modern westerns like the spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood. I'm not sure it was for any appreciation of the artistry of director Sergio Leone and much as it was for Clint's squint and his terse ability to delivery of a threat.

While westerns are not high on my list of favorite genres, there are westerns that I really like. These films (like Red River which I posted about a few weeks ago) are as much character studies. Nothing brings out the best or the worst the in a character that confronting the harshness of the wilderness of the American West or trying to find decency and honor amongst lawlessness.



Today's film is one that I saw when I was child and recently I stumbled across again, "Support Your Local Sheriff." 

This film is ostensibly a western comedy but I must caution, this is no "Blazing Saddles". In many ways, "Support Your Local Sheriff" is a straight up normal western. In fact, the structure of the plot is similar to "Red River" with a man arrested for murder and that man's powerful family who thinks they run the town and should not have to answer to the law. 




But there are a lot of laughs in "Support Your Local Sheriff" that come from how things get done in the town of Calendar, Colorado, a mining town that has sprung up overnight after Prudy Perkins (Joan Hackett) notices gold in a freshly dug grave during a funeral. Her dad, Olly Perkins (Harry Morgan) is mayor of the new town and is bothered by the chaos and confusion running rampant through Calendar. Anyone who has dared taken the job of Sheriff has either run off or been killed. 

This is where Jason McCullough (James Garner) comes in. An exceptionally skilled gunfighter, he tells anyone who will listen that he's just passing through town on his way to Australia. But he witnesses Joe Danby (Bruce Dern) shoot a man dead in the town saloon. 

Olly Perkins makes a pitch to McCullough to take the job of town sheriff. The gunfighter is recalcitrant to take the job as he's just passing through town on his way to Australia. But he really could use the money so he agrees to take the job for a little while until he's ready to get back on his journey on his way to Australia.

Calendar has a brand new jail with all sorts of amenities. 

Except bars for the cells.

This does not stop McCullough from arresting Joe for murder and keeping him in one of those cells with a line of chalk on the floor and a little psychology to keep the dimwitted and easily flummoxed Joe in line. 

Pa Danby (Walter Brennan so you know Pa Danby will be mean and ornery) don't cotton to that no how.

A series of schemes, strategies and assaults to bust Joe out of his bar-less cell all come to naught against McCullough's sharp eye, fast gun and even sharper and faster wit. 

This a good western for people who may not like westerns. It tells a story employing all the tropes of the western hero who rescues a lawless town while having fun with those tropes. 

(Odd factoid: In 1971 director Burt Kennedy got together with James Garner and Harry Morgan in "Support Your Local Gunfighter" playing different characters but employing the same comedic tone and a lot of the plot of "Support Your Local Sheriff". James Garner liked the first film better and he ain't wrong by much.) 

(Another odd factoid: At a time of social unrest, there was a 1960s campaign slogan designed to bolster support for law enforcement: "Support Your Local Police". This slogan served as the inspiration for the two films' titles.)

While "Support Your Local Sheriff" has fun with western tropes, it is still respectful of those conventions, telling a story a western fan will love. __________________________________

This week we looked at film that combined comedy with the western. Next, we look at what's funny in a zombie apocalypse.  

Until next time, stay safe and support your local first responders, nurses, doctors and all those essential workers putting their lives on the line to make our lives better.

And as always, remember to be good to one another.