The Shakiest Gun in the West

1968
Approved
1h 41m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Don Knotts and Barbara Rhoades in The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968)

A pardoned stagecoach robber, becomes government agent and marries a naive unsuspecting east-coast dentist in order to join a wagon train and catch the smugglers who have been selling guns t... Read allA pardoned stagecoach robber, becomes government agent and marries a naive unsuspecting east-coast dentist in order to join a wagon train and catch the smugglers who have been selling guns to the Indians.A pardoned stagecoach robber, becomes government agent and marries a naive unsuspecting east-coast dentist in order to join a wagon train and catch the smugglers who have been selling guns to the Indians.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

3.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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9:57

Storyline

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Trivia
This was the third film made under a five-picture contract Don Knotts signed with Universal Studios in 1965. The first (and most successful) of them was 1966's "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken".

Goofs
When Heywood and the female patient start to fight, it's obvious that they're stuntmen: Heywood's hair is all wrong and the "lady" is very muscular.

Quotes
Jesse Heywood: I'm in teeth. And I came out here all the way from Philadelphia single-handed to fight oral ignorance!

Connections
Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997)

Soundtracks
The Shakiest Gun in the West
Words and Music by Jerry Keller and Dave Blume
Sung by The Wilburn Brothers
Courtesy Decca Records

User reviews31

Featured review

7/10

Barney Fife Goes West

This story by Edmund Hartman and Frank Tashlin has certainly got an endearing quality because two comics managed to get hit movies from it. The Shakiest Gun In The West is a reworking of the Bob Hope-Jane Russell classic, The Paleface. Into Hope's shoes steps Don Knotts trembling all the way to the bank.

Knotts takes his Barney Fife character and has him graduate Philadelphia Dental College and decide to take Horace Greeley's advice and go west to seek fame and fortune.

Like Hope he gets himself tangled up with a lady bandit played by the curvaceous Barbara Rhoades. Barbara might not have the development of Jane Russell, but there are few who do. Anyway she's been promised a pardon if she'll find out who's selling guns and whiskey to the Indians.

And to get west she needs a schnook and when Bob Hope's not around, Don Knotts will certainly do. But Knotts certainly has an endearing quality to him as she finds out.

Some western veterans like Don Barry, Terry Wilson, Dub Taylor are all in this cast. This film was the farewell performance of Frank McGrath, best known as one of Hollywood's premier stunt men who turned actor and played Charlie Wooster on Wagon Train. Jackie Coogan is in this one too, playing a church deacon.

Some of the gags from The Paleface are repeated here and some might say get better with age.

Definitely a film for Barney Fife fans the world over.