The Second Time Around (1961)

Directed by Vincent Sherman. Starring Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith, Thelma Ritter, Ken Scott, Isobel Elsom, Juliet Prowse, Tom Greenway, Timothy Carey, Rudolph Acosta.

Expendable fluff in the guise of a star vehicle for Debbie Reynolds, cast as a prim but determined widow who heads from the East Coast to the Old West, starting out as a ranch hand and eventually becoming sheriff. She fends off the advances of two men—amoral saloon owner Forrest and good ol’ boy rancher Griffith—and tussles with some bank robbers led by the crook who once wore her tin star. Innocuous, but on the bland side, and its mild pleasures are ruined by a stupid ending where she turns down the halfway decent guy for the scheming letch! Based on a novel (“Star in the West”) by Richard Emery Roberts.

47/100