I watched Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter today and enjoyed them all over again. I had copies I had recorded off of Turner Classic Movies and thought I would upgrade them to real DVDs. They do look a lot better.
Support Your Local Sheriff came out in 1969 and I went to see it in the theater. I'd been a big James Garner fan from watching the Maverick series on TV. I recently picked up a set of Maverick and I'm slowly watching the first season.
James Garner is a guy who wanders into a small town. He says he's on the way to Australia but he gets talked into taking the sheriff's job. His first act is to arrest Bruce Dern, the son of the local bad rancher, played by Walter Brennan. Walter and his son's have they way int he town and Walter collects a large fee to protect the gold that gets shipped across his land.
Joan Hackett plays the romantic interest and Harry Morgan is her father and the town mayor. It's a town struggling with the lawlessness of the local gold miners, on top of being under Walter's thumb.
James makes Jack Elam his deputy and they proceed to clean up the town. There's plenty of jokes, some of that mushy stuff, and a good bit of fighting and gun play. The script was written by William Bowers and Burt Kennedy was the director. William has written some good screenplays since starting in 1942 and going on until 1980. I've seen The Gunfighter, Mrs O'Malley and Mr Malone, Cry Danger and Alias Jesse James, enjoyed them all. Burt started directing in 1961 and he worked until 2000. One of my other favorites of his work is the 1976 film adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel The Killer Inside Me.
Support Your Local Gunfighter came out in 1971 and a few of the previous cast return. James is a different guy, he's a conman who arrives in the jerkwater mining town of Purgatory. Suzanne Pleshette plays the wacky romantic interest. I've never cared that much for her. I've seen her in a lot of Disney movies. Henry Morgan is her dad. Henry and John Denher are both digging for the mother load of gold. It's a heated rivalry and there's sabotage involved.
Jack Elam gets tricked into playing a known gunslinger by James. There's several other good character actors in the mix, Marie Windsor, Dub Taylor, Joan Blondell, Ellen Corby, Kathleen Freeman, Henry Jones, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez and Chuck Conners.
I might not have enjoyed the second movie quite as much as the first but it was still entertaining. I gave them both a 7 but I couldn't really give the second movie a 6, it's bit better than that. Burt Kennedy returns as the director and he co-wrote the script (uncredited) with James Edward Grant. Grant started in the movie biz in 1935 when his story was adapted for a movie, he had his own screenplays the following year. He's written a few of John Wayne movies, I know I've seen Angel And The Badman, Flying Leathernecks, The Alamo, McLintock! and Circus World for sure.
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