La rubia y el Sheriff

In the first place, the cliché of the "fish out of water" might be over-used now, but it was hardly over-used in 1958. There are echoes of Bob Hope's Paleface and Son of Paleface, but those were ten years earlier.

Secondly, just because a movie might have had some scenes filmed in Spain does not make it a Spaghetti Western. Spaghetti Westerns are westerns produced by Italians and directed by Italians. That's where the name "spaghetti" comes from, see?

The Western is not my favorite genre, but I enjoy Kenneth Moore. Jayne Mansfield does an adequate job. My favorite is of course poor William Campbell as Keno.

Jayne Mansfield plays Kate, boarding house owner, and into town comes Kenneth Moore, a gun salesman from England. Not only are the songs by Jayne dubbed, it sounds like some of the lines are too. Starts out slow, gets better as it goes along. The mayor and the Indian chief steal the movie. There are a few gags and laughs, sort of an early version of Mel Brooks "Blazing Saddles". Nothing real good in "Special Features" on the DVD, but I guess that's due to the fact it was filmed in 1958. No real surprises here... your run of the mill spaghetti western with some laughs thrown in. According to the DVD liner notes included, this was filmed in England and in Spain (?) Too bad they didn't do more with Robert Morley; could have spiced things up more.

A British comedy Western filmed in Spain, starring a bastion of English acting (Kenneth Moore), an American sex-bomb (Jayne Mansfield) and directed by the man who brought us High Sierra & White Heat (Raoul Walsh}. Yes that's quite a hodge-podge of elements and it's no surprise to find that that's exactly what the film is; a mixture of fun froth and cringe inducing oddities.

The film is adapted by Howard Dimsdale from a short story written by Jacob Hay. The plot centres around Jonathon Tibbs (Moore), the young son of a family of English gunsmiths. He travels to the American West in the 1880s to sell firearms to the locals. While on stagecoach route he survives an Indian attack purely by stiff upper lip British luck, and then he inadvertently acquires a reputation of quickness on the draw due to his wrist mounted Derringer style weapon. Sensing an opportunity to finally clean up Fractured Jaw, which is in the middle of a war between The Lazy S & Box T factions, the mayor bluffs Tibbs into becoming the sheriff. Cue hilarity as the hopelessly ill equipped Englishman starts to clean up the town with the help of buxom saloon owner Kate (Mansfield) and his new family; the Indians.

The problems with the film are many, the over used fish out of water formula, the budget restrictions being over obvious and the glaringly blatant lack of chemistry between the two oddly casted leads-are just the ones that first spring to mind. Then you can add the bad idea to include the likes of Robert Morley and Sid James in your film, and give them next to no time on screen. So yes it's not too harsh to say that The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw is a weak film in many ways. Yet it is funny, something that comes quite often with the fish out of water formula if the writing is clever enough. Mercifully Dimsdale's screenplay sets up a number of humorous set pieces and Walsh, tho long past his best, professionally puts them together.

Moore gives the whole British tenderfoot act his complete gusto, and Mansfield looks terrific; every inch the sex-bomb befitting her legacy. Some fine support comes from Henry Hull & Bruce Cabot, while the tunes (Mansfield dubbed by the brilliant Connie Francis), notably the gorgeous theme song "In The Valley Of Love," keep the film brisk and firmly footed in the light entertainment department. It's a film that if you dwell on it too much could drive you to distraction, but as time fillers go in the comedy Western sub-genre, it just about finishes above average and is recommended for like minded adults on a very rainy day. 6/10

Good family film - something particularly wholesome about Kenneth More - and I don't want to 'rain on the parade' (More is one of my favourite actors and 1958 one of my favourite years - see also: A Night to Remember', More et al 1958). But there does seem to be a lack of chemistry between More (Jonathan Tibbs) and Jayne Mansfield (Kate) - notwithstanding that this is primarily a spoof-western comedy rather than a RomCom. Did they actually get on? Some of the scenes with just the two of them are painfully laboured. But, yes, the film (due in no small part to the laconic ease of More) is entirely watchable, and the production values - even for this lightweight film - are as high as you would expect from any mainstream Hollywood film of the day.

Kenneth More and Jayne Mansfield star in The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw which plays very much like a Carry On film. In fact Sid James of the Carry On company has a brief role as a drunken stagecoach passenger and kind of lends an official presence to this satire of the western. The Carry On crew would later film Carry On Cowboy which this bears some resemblance to.

The real model for this film is Destry Rides Again as Kenneth More plays a rather mild mannered Englishman who goes west to sell firearms, firearms manufactured by his father Robert Morley's company. More sells Morley on the fact that in the lawless American west what better place can the company find a better market.

Poor Moore he manages to get himself involved in a range war between two large ranches, gets appointed sheriff of the town of Fractured Jaw and gets made an adopted member of the local Indian tribe. But this was not without its pleasant side as he manages to also win saloon singer Jayne Mansfield. She's more like Wrangler Jane of F Troop than Marlene Dietrich.

Jayne gets three songs also and she's dubbed by the familiar voice of Connie Francis. Not that Connie doesn't sing them well, but we know that's Connie Francis coming from Mansfield. They should have used an unknown singer.

The film has its amusing moments, but it really is an overblown Carry On film.