classicsoncall Review of Support Your Local Sheriff!

Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

"Well, we don't want a massacre on our hands, so just watch it."

[7/10 · 4 May 2016]

Still looking good, the old Maverick himself, James Garner, rides into an old West boom town and generally takes over with understated good humor and a lightning gun that doesn't get much of a workout. The genre parody takes off right from the start with a nice view of Madame Orr's House, and if you didn't get the hint this was going to be a spoof right then and there, you probably weren't paying attention. With Jack Elam on board, you never quite know if he's going to be a good guy or a villain, so when he backs up the new sheriff at the saloon, you have the makings of a clever team up. As with almost everything else in the story, Jason McCullough's (Garner) romancing of the mayor's daughter (Joan Hackett) comes slow and easy, and you had to get a kick out of their cowardly/mature conversation right before the shootout with the Danby's. I'd have to say the cannon gimmick with Joe Danby (Bruce Dern) was pretty clever, but did you notice? Right after Prudy shot two of the Danby kin out of the thirteen that arrived to help out Pa (Walter Brennan), there were still thirteen lined up against McCullough and the cannon. Makes you wonder whether thirteen was their lucky number or not.