Dirty Dingus Magee

Dirty Dingus Magee (1970)

** (out of 4)

Dimwitted outlaw Dingus Magee (Frank Sinatra) runs into old friend Hoke Birdsill (George Kennedy) and robs him of $400. Hoke goes into the next town looking for a sheriff but finds the town not to have one but the Mayor (Anne Jackson), who also happens to run the local whore house, gives him the job so Hoke sets out to capture Magee but it turns out both are so stupid they keep up making new agreements to become rich.

DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE was a commercial and critical flop when it was originally released and star Sinatra pretty much gave up the acting career until 1977 when he made a television movie and then tried one more theatrical comeback in 1980. This film has been beaten to death by many critics but I think they were a tad bit unfair. Yes, the film isn't nearly as funny as it should have been and yes, perhaps Sinatra could have been more interested in doing better movies at the times but looking back on this film it's a pretty innocent film that manages a few nice laughs and there's no question that there are some good supporting performances.

Director Burt Kennedy directed countless Westerns in his career including some that mixed comedy in including SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. This film manages to get a few nice laughs as both Sinatra and Kennedy's characters set up deals with each other but the two men are just so stupid that one has to cross the other but then isn't smart enough to get away. The majority of the comedy comes from small simple scenes where Sinatra gets in trouble and then has to knock out Kennedy or vice versa. There's a strong supporting group of players who also throw into the dumbness of the characters.

As far as the performances go, Sinatra really isn't too bad here but it's clear he really wasn't giving it his all. He had proved that he could be a great actor so it's easy to see why many critics felt he was sleepwalking in movies like this. Kennedy, on the other hand, is extremely good and manages to show off what a good comedic actor he was long before THE NAKED GUN series. The supporting cast contains good performances from Jack Elam who gets to play John Wesley Hardin and Lois Nettleton is great as a nymphomaniac who doesn't want to admit it. Jackson is also charming in her role as the Mayor and Michele Carey is good as the Indian woman who takes care of Dingus.

DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE certainly isn't a masterpiece as there are a great number of flaws. The biggest flaw is that there's really not much of a story as the same type of situation just keeps happening over and over. There's also an extremely long shoot out at the end of the picture, which just drags on and on. Still, fans of this type of film will want to check it out as there are a few nice laughs and there's no doubt that the supporting actors are quite good.

Don't expect to be sitting on the edge of your seat, but do expect to be entertained. Its a comedy and a spoof of westerns. Comparing this movie to the rounders or support your local sheriff was a huge stretch...heck comparing Support your local sheriff to the rounders is silly too. I would give this movie about what it is rated at...around a 6. The actors are all familiar and since it was made in 1970 it is a piece of nostalgia too. Heck, Jack Elam is in it, so its a true western. Anna is smoking hot (why else would she have been in Elvis movies) Its a silly style western comedy, it is what it is.If it were not for the constant conniving by Sanatra and Kennedy..there really would be less of a plot.

In 1965 David Markson wrote the novel 'The Ballad of Dingus Magee' in which the hero is a scrawny teenager. Fast forward to 1970 and we have a far from scrawny, 55 year old Frank Sinatra in the title role! Mr. Sinatra is indisputably one of the greatest interpreters of popular song ever to step up to a microphone and represents a Golden Age of entertainment that is alas gone forever. His films are a mixed bunch to say the least but with a strong director and the right material he has given some fine performances. Hollywood is an unforgiving place however, in which memories are short. His last commercial and critical success had been 'Von Ryan's Express' in 1965 and in the world of film, five years is far too long. Although he remained both popular and active as an entertainer this dreadful opus of Burt Kennedy effectively scuppered his film career.

Such infantile, puerile nonsense is almost too painful to behold and the spectacle of a middle-aged Sinatra in red long johns cavorting with the somewhat younger, mini-skirted squaw of luscious Michele Carey is exceedingly absurd. The supporting cast does its best in the circumstances and the standout performance is that of Lois Nettleton as Prudence("Prude for short but not for long")

It looks as if the cast had great fun in making this but the end result is an acute embarassment to all concerned and should be filed under 'T' for 'Turkey'.

Yes. That's the whole movie. Sinatra tries (sometimes unsuccessfully) to have sexual relations with several Native American women. Meanwhile, the sheriff of a town full of prostitutes chases him around in search of buried treasure.

Based on a true story.

It has some funny lines, and there is slapstick to boot. Not a bad film if you really have nothing better to do with your time, but I wouldn't have paid money to see it when it premiered back in 1922 (even if it did only cost a half-penny for talkie). OK, seriously, this movie isn't that old, nor is it that funny. If you like westerns and Frank Sinatra, then maybe this film is for you.

This is a sort of live-action equivalent of the famous cartoon series. Fun Western parody in which satire goes on and on the same comical premise. The bandit Dingus Mgee (Frank Sinatra) arrives in the town of Yerkey's Hole, where a series of disorder and altercations break out. There he meets an old friend (George Kennedy) with whom he begins a prolonged confrontation to keep a loot. In the town of Yerkey's Hole, Belle Knops (Anne Jackson) is both Mayor and bordello-madam. She appoints Hoke town Sheriff and tries to get him to stir up the Indians so the soldiers at the nearby fort won't go to Little Big Horn, that why the troopers ae the main clients of her prostitutes. Along the way Dingus keeps attempting to save his Indian girlfriend (Michele Carey) and keeps rescuing her . Sinatra plays cowboys and indians for adults! It's kind of a western. He's sort of a cowboy !. It is the fastest fun in the west!

Diverting Western satire in which there are several nutty characters and improbable happenings. This wacky spoof is packed with mayhem, lots of silly laughters and great entertainment and fun . Most of the laughs and sight gags galore work acceptably well ; humor is also bold and intelligent with a myriad of imaginative but well-known sketches . Demystified as well as amiable Western was one of a group of diverse characters changed the concept of this particular genre each bent on disproving a popular myth , yet tinged with humor , spoof and combining with anti-heroes , crazy Indians and anything else. The film is a send-up of "the Code of the West" with a lot of and exaggerated events, embarrasment and ridiculousness. A funny spoof of B Western that is almost live-action Roadrunner/Coyote and his disaster-prone cartoon, a similar experiment was subsequently made by Hal Needham in Cactus Jack (1979) . Here Sinatra plays the inept highwayman Dirty Dingus Magee who faces off his old enemy Hoke Birdsill taking turns at being either lawman or outlaw and being rivals or partners in crime, depending of the circumstances. But incompetent Hoke/George Kennedy mugs his way through a routine series of flops and he repeatedly fails to to get the loot. This comic Western is a kind of live-action similar to Roadrunner and Coyote. This is an enjoyable film but repetitive and director Burt Kennedy, apparently lost in the continuous gags , resorts to hackeyed camera trickery , including a truly silly denouement. The picture is fun enough and agreeable in parts and it has its moments here and there . The great duo of likeable protagonists: Frank Sinatra, George Kennedy are complemented by a nice support cast, such as : Anne Jackson, Lois Nettleton, Michele Carey, John Dehner, Henry Jones, Harry Carey Jr, Paul Fix and Jack Elam steal the show as the alleged criminal, murderer, shooter John Wesley Hardin, a real gunman who murdered a number of victims. The twisted screenplay besides having more than its fair scraps of funny lines ,throws up sympathetic roles. The formula deals to enhance the comic observations of the western originated on the decade 60 , being continued by the following filmmakers : Andrew McLagen and Burt Kennedy with ¨Support your local gunfighter (one of his better spoof Western)¨ , ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (his highpoint) , ¨Dirty Dingus Mcgee¨ and director Michael Gordon with ¨Texas across the river¨ ; a bit later on , Mel Brooks directed the indispensable ¨Blazing saddles¨, a surrealist , extreme and gross-out spoof with the ordinary bunch of loonies and loopies .

This amusing and hilarious Western was regular y professionally directed by Burt Kennedy. He initially was screenwriter , his initial effort, ¨Seven men from now¨ (1956), was a superb western, the first of the esteemed collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott. Kennedy wrote most of that series, as well as a number of others for Batjac, although it would be nearly 20 years before Wayne actually appeared in the film of a Kennedy script. In 1960 Kennedy got his first work as a filmmaker on a western, ¨The Canadians¨ (1961), but it was a critical failure . He turned to television where he wrote and directed episodes of "Lawman" (1958), "The Virginian " (1962) and most notably ¨Combat!"(1962). Directing ¨Support you local sheriff¨, ¨Support your local gunfighter¨ ¨War Wagon¨ and ¨ The Good guys and bad guys¨ that resulted to be four of his best Westerns . He returned to films in 1965 with the successful ¨The Canadians¨ (1965), later producing and directing the pilot for the TV series of the same name. The film will appeal to absurd, unruly , wacky Western comedy fans . This raucous Western spoof is a Frank Sinatra/George Kennedy vehicle , if you like their particular performances ,you'll enjoy this one .