Ne tirez pas sur le shérif

I love it when Sheriff Garner casually sticks his finger into bad guy Brennan's gun barrel. What a great way to disarm a menace. I don't know if his trick would really work, but who cares since it's good for a laugh. In fact, such imaginative goofiness could stand for the movie as a whole. Like when Garner chases a gunslinger out of town with a barrage of rocks. His aim may not be so good, but a thousand clichéd fast-draws flashed before me while I laughed. And it's not just Garner-- it's the whole superbly droll cast. Old pro's like Henry Morgan, Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, and even the newcomer Joan Hackett, a fine actress who shoots much too well, but in real life, died much too young. All the nonsense adds up to one really droll take-off on a thousand Western clichés, without rubbing your nose in it. It's also a tribute to the much under-rated helmsman Burt Kennedy and writer William Bowers who comes up with the great line about "disturbing the peace" as the three half-dressed councilmen escape the exploding bordello. Then too, looks like Garner's Cherokee Productions financed the project, proving that the savvy actor knows quality when he sees it. From start to finish— a real little gem.

Now, I will even watch James Garner in a bad movie. That whole worldly wise, yet winsome thing he has going makes you think of that best bud you had in junior high.

But this is actually a very good, drown yourself in a bag of popcorn, and laugh your cares away film.

Is it a western parody or humorous homage to some of the great character actors in American western? It certainly doesn't have a mean bone in its body and doesn't rely on shock humor to get you chuckling. This film respects its predecessors and has good clean fun with them.

It's a DVD you can easily find for under $10, and well worth it.

Jason McCullough (James Garner) is just passing through town on his way to Australia (!). Needing money, he takes the job of sheriff and quickly finds himself at odds with the criminal Danby family. Very funny western comedy. It sends up the western genre gently without being condescending or insulting like so many western comedies are. James Garner is terrific as the level-headed sheriff, as quick with his wits as with a gun. Great character actor Jack Elam is lots of fun as his sidekick. Bruce Dern is hilarious as the dim-witted Joe Danby. Walter Brennan plays the patriarch of the Danby clan. One would assume this is a send-up of his role in My Darling Clementine. He's very funny as well. Harry Morgan is solid as always. Joan Hackett as the hotheaded Prudy nearly steals the show. I say nearly because Garner's flawless performance can't be beat. It's really a superb cast in a must-see film.

"Support Your Local Sheriff!", like most comedy films, creates a sort of alternative reality dimension in which the characters are more bumbling and strange, behave completely unlike anybody would have in real life, and produce jokes that only the audience finds effective. And unlike others I can think of, "Support Your Local Sheriff!" does this very well. James Garner plays a take-it-easy man "on his way to Australia" who stops to take his first job ever as a lawman in a boomtown somewhere, sometime in the Old West. And right from the beginning, things really start to get awkward.

Garner shares the screen with other popular and talented actors such as Jack Elam, Harry Morgan, Walter Brennan, Joan Hackett, Gene Evans, and Bruce Dern. I felt the performances were very well-done, most noticeable for Harry Morgan as the town's loud-speaking, acting-before-thinking mayor and Jack Elam as Garner's reluctantly appointed deputy, having been "promoted" from "shoveling horse...working around the stables." Walter Brennan did a sort of parody on some of his other villainous characters, still maintaining a good performance and still being a comical character without making any of the modern "funny" tactics such as acting out of the ordinary.

That goes for the entire film. Even though it's a comedy and nothing in this film would really happen in a sane world of sane people, it makes it look as if it COULD happen. That's the problem with comedy films nowadays: they don't make things look like they MIGHT happen. This film does.

Bottom line, I recommend "Support Your Local Sheriff!" for its outstanding way of blending two quite contrary genres and still making a very effective and entertaining film. I found myself laughing several times and this is definitely the kind of film to suit an entire family just looking for a good, non-serious film that does not taking cliché or distasteful tactics in order to try and make us crack up.

This is yet another of those "they don't make 'em like this anymore" gems.

And, this western is a comic gem. Okay, it's a scream!

The whole cast is perfect, playing perfectly to a wonderful script. While all the action circles around the perfectly cast James Garner, who is light and amusing. Although he is funny, he's still the straight man to to all the town loonies.

Bruce Dern and Jack Elam are over the top hilarious as a dimwitted bad guy and dimwitted "town character" respectively. Harry Morgan is as funny as he's ever been, which is saying a lot considering his role in What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? Walter Brennan is typically excellent in one of his later roles as the typically grump head of the bad guy's clan. Even the lesser roles, such as Kathleen Freeman as a passerby, are delightful in her 2-minute scene.

The late Joan Hackett is the mayor's daughter, the madcap, eccentric Prudy. plays comedy really well. She gets lovelier every time I see this. She's as beautiful as she is funny in this and she's a riot. She left us way too soon.

I wish one of our revival houses would run this coupled with The Cheyanne Social Club, another delightfully comic western from that great era in films. That would be one entertaining night at the movies!