So You Want to Be a Cowboy

TO THE GENRE of the Western Movie came the spoofers like Chaplin (THE PILGRIM), Keaton (THE PALEFACE), Will Rogers, Harold Lloyd (THE KID BROTHER), Laurel & Hardy (WAY OUT WEST), The Marx Brothers (GO WEST) and many others. So it came to pass that the MC DOAKES Series' production team decided that this sort of lampooning was fit for their favourite everyman.

IN MEETING THIS challenge, the series found itself in sort of a double parody. First of all, every entry in the series presents us with our hero and surrogate basically trapped into venturing from the relative comfortable safety of everyday life in the mid 20th Century and risking his dignity and manly superiority in full display to all.

FIRST OF ALL, the great American custom of 'Movie Night' at the neighborhood theatre is put on full, close-up and merciless examination. The enthusiasm of Joe, Alice (Phyllis Coates and the rest of the patrons make no apologies for their almost childlike enthusiasm.

THE SECOND LAYER of parody lies in the revelation through Joe, that we all live in our fantasies and are enabled to do so in the realm of the darkened movie house. Being truly red-blooded and American, the only universally held first choice is that of the Six Gun Heroes of the Old West.

THE METHOD OF fusing this twofold sojourn into the realm of parody is accomplished by borrowing from the earlier masterworks of Buster Keaton. Much like Buster's protagonist in SHERLOCK JR., the script called for Joe to be transported into the heart of the movie itself.* ONCE IT WAS established that the hero and guy who would "Get the Girl" would be 'Hop, Skip and Jump Along Mc Doakes, the usual series of properly genre proper gags and short scenes was concocted.

AN ENERGETIC AND even manic pace was adopted (have only 10-11 minutes to get it all in). Added to what wasn't really a small cast for a short subject. For good measure, the raiding of Warner Brothers film vaults was employed by their infusion of plenty of fittingly tailored Western stock footage.

BY VIRTUE OF its making a spoof of the "Cowboy Picture", we have to give this little movie high marks. Writer/Director Richard L. Bare is to be commended for pushing the envelope and broadening Mr. George O'Hanlon's favourite character's reach.

In this episode of Warner Brother's long-running series of Joe McDoakes short, George O'Hanlon and wife Phyllis Coates go to the movies. Of course, O'Hanlon insists on a B western. After soon problems with his fellow movie-goers, the film starts. O'Hanlon imagines himself as the singing cowboy star of the film, with Miss Coates as the heroine.

There was a lot of foolishness in the old B westerns. They were mostly caused by the lack of budget and originality in scripts. Richard L. Bare reduces it all to rather inept plotting, with lots of slapstick bits to keep his regular fans of the silly series happy.

So You Want to Be a Cowboy (1951)

** (out of 4)

Richard L. Bare Weaker entry in the series has Joe dragging Alice to yet another Western picture. During the movie Joe begins to imagine he's the cowboy on screen trying to save the lady (Alice) from the bad guy. There are a couple very big laughs here but for the most part the jokes fall flat on their face. The movie does a pretty good job at spoofing "B" Westerns but the problem is that none of the jokes are funny. Whenever McDoakes is on screen playing the cowboy the jokes completely stop as nothing there is funny. The writing here is pretty poor as it appears no thought went into the jokes other than giving the characters funny names or making Joe speak with a funny Southern accent. There are a couple big laughs and they happen when we flashback to reality and Joe has gotten himself into trouble inside the theater. I think this was the first time I had been disappointed with George O'Hanlon but not even he could do anything with this screenplay. This here is certainly one of the weakest of the series and is for those who must watch all of the McDoakes shorts.

I noticed that the other review for "So You Want to Be a Cowboy" is very positive. Well, I didn't like this one at all and would place it among the worst of the Joe McDoakes comedies...and I think you'll either love it or hate it.

Joe insists on taking the wife to see yet another western movie. She hates them but Joe, with his incredibly overactive imagination, sees himself as the hero in the film...and he keeps imagining what it would be like if he was Hop and Skipalong McDoakes, a dopey western hero.

To me the problem is that the jokes were much broader and sillier than usual...to the point where I think many adults would find the film tedious. The kids back in the day probably enjoyed it more. Regardless, it's so different from the other entries in the series...a difference that you may or may not enjoy.