The Slowest Gun in the West

This was an amusing comedy which I believe was shown the during the summer of 1960. The show was about how Phil Silvers was cleaning up a crime ridden town in the old west, sometimes using methods that were...shall we say a little anachronistic. In one sequence he ruins a young gunslinger by convincing him that his dependence on his two six-shooters was based on an unhappy childhood deprived of his toys. You hear him shooting it out, and as he stumbles out of the building, he looks at his two guns and mutters (in happy tears), "My Teddy Bears!" The bad guys hire Jack Benny to bring down the cowardly Silvers, only to hire his criminal opposite number. Benny and Silvers ended the show in the most preposterous show-down in western history. To prove their superiority over the other they have to be more cowardly - so each yells "You draw first!" to the other. We watch them in place with the town growing up around them. Only at the tail end of the show do we see who won the show-down.

I have never liked canned laughter and it certainly did not help here. Yes, I do like "Gilligan's Island".

Like viewing the burlesque skits of old Vaudeville, one can intellectually understand that something should be funny, once was, but today it will just miss the mark. I wanted to like this as so many well rounded performers took part in the effort. After viewing this made for TV film I remember seeing it when it originally aired, I did not then find it funny, yet I appreciate why it should elicit a smile. I watched because I recall, as a child, some of the humour of the "Phil Silvers Show" - that was the 1950's, it is now 2008 and the bloom is off the rose.

I think I can see why The Slowest Gun In The West was not picked up as a pilot. It might have been hard to come up with reasons why someone did not shoot Phil Silvers despite the plot premise that any self respecting gunfighter would have been laughed at for killing such a coward. It's a variation on the premise of the Abbott&Costello classic The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap.

Nevertheless this is a pretty funny pilot film especially when the bad guys go find their own cowardly gunslinger in the person of Jack Benny to face Silvers.

A whole lot of western film heavies get to appear in this but as comic foils for Silvers and Benny. Worth watching for them alone.

This is a Phil Silvers Special that was aired on TV in 1960. It is available on DVD or VHS (check Google). This is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen, and I usually don't like Phil Silvers. It has great writing and characters, and is a true spoof of westerns, not forced comedy. There are lots of character actor guest stars, including Marion Ross (Happy Days) as Phil's girlfriend, and Jack Benny in a typically funny role as a cowardly cheapskate. Nat Hiken, who wrote the script, also wrote Silvers' Bilko show from the 50s, and Car 54 Where Are You, an underrated TV show from the 60s with Fred Gwynn. If you want some good laughs and also have in your video collection a delightful nostalgic reminder of "good TV" with no dirty humor or four letter words, do yourself a favor and buy this show.

Phil Silvers cleans up a western town in this ultimate fish-out-of-water story.

Since it's about an hour long (and black and white) it's hard to talk about without dropping spoilers, so this review will mention some of its better aspects.

Is it funny? Most of it is simply light. It does have some out-loud laughs but once the delightful premise is established it drags a few minutes before the great Jack Benny shows up. An hour is about the extent this premise will stretch.

Does Jack Benny have a worthwhile part? Yes, but don't expect him until after it's half to two-thirds over.

Who else is in it? Parley Baer, Bruce Cabot, Jack Albertson. Two noteworthy rising western stars have small but pivotal roles: Jack Elam and Lee van Cleef. Later in the decade Elam would appear in a funnier western spoof. "Support Your Local Sheriff."