Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

Directed by Burt Kennedy. Starring James Garner, Jack Elam, Joan Hackett, Harry Morgan, Walter Brennan, Henry Jones, Bruce Dern, Walter Burke, Willis Bouchey, Gene Evans, Dick Peabody. [G]

Enjoyably rowdy Western, a semi-spoof that lovingly kids many of the genre’s timeworn traditions and clichés. Garner is just passing through a frontier boomtown (on his way to the even bigger frontier of Australia) when he decides to stick around a while and tame these ruffians as sheriff; he butts heads with the local family gang of hooligans, romances a cute klutz (Hackett), waits for the delivery of the jail cell bars—until then, prisoners are on the chalk-line honor system, of course. Garner is in fine relaxed form, almost always in control of the situation (to the astonishment of the townsfolk); he even “calls a timeout” during a gunfight and gets away with it! Lots of character actors fill out the supporting cast, including Morgan and Brennan doing spins on their similar roles from High Noon and My Darling Clementine respectively. Not a great film, but a fun one, with an infectious charm and very few slow spots. Followed by the Western comedy Support Your Local Gunfighter, which re-teamed Kennedy with a lot of the same cast, though they played different roles and it isn’t an “official” sequel.

74/100