Auch ein Sheriff braucht mal Hilfe (1969)

Auch ein Sheriff braucht mal Hilfe: Directed by Burt Kennedy. With James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan. In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough. In the end, he uses ingenuity instead.

“Support Your Local Sheriff! is directed by Burt Kennedy and written by William Bowers. It stars James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Harry Morgan and Bruce Dern. Harry Stradling Jr. is the cinematographer and Jeff Alexander scores the music. The film is essentially a parody of a Western splinter that encompasses an iconoclastic new arrival in a troubled town who sets about taming it. Here itu0026#39;s James Garner as Jason McCullough who is on his way to Australia to make his fortune. Stopping over in an Old Western town for some rest, a bite to eat, and maybe earn some cash? McCullough is disgusted to find corruption and murder is rife. Showing a firm backbone and some nifty skills with a gun, McCullough highly impresses the town dignitaries who offer him the position of Sheriff. A job he finally accepts and begins taming the town with his unconventional methods.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSupport Your Local Sheriff! Very much had time on its side when it was released. Interest in the Western as a genre had waned considerably, with the advent of free television potentially ready to drive the final nails into the coffin. Four years earlier Cat Ballou had shown that a comedy Western in the 60s could be well received. While master craftsman Howard Hawks had parodied his own Rio Bravo a year after Cat Ballou with the well regarded El Dorado. Throw into the pot that James Garner had good comedic Western credentials behind him on account of his run in TV series Maverick (1957-1962); and itu0026#39;s evident that Messrs Kennedy u0026amp; Bowers knew exactly what they were doing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRoger Ebert famously accused the makers of the film of being thieves, not buying into the parody basis, he hated the film and thought it just stole from other Western movies whilst being made in a TV show style. Well thatu0026#39;s kind of the core of a parody movie is it not? Bowers u0026amp; Kennedy have crafted a top dollar irreverent Oater, embracing the clichés of many standard genre pics that had gone before it-and then turning them upside down. While all the time, with this cast of very knowing genre participants, cloaking the picture with love and affection. Itu0026#39;s not so much biting the hand that feeds you, but more a tasteful appreciation of what was sometimes fed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFull of truly memorable scenes such as a jail without bars, the film is immeasurably helped by the on fire cast. Garner deadpans it a treat and is charismatic into the bargain. As he goes about taming the town more by logic and suggestion than rapid gunfire, heu0026#39;s a hero thatu0026#39;s very easy to warm too. Hackett, who owes the Western fan nothing after Will Penny, is simply adorable as a bumbling rich girl quickly getting the hots for the new Sheriff. Morgan u0026amp; Dern play it firmly with a glint in the eye and tongue in cheek, and Brennan, a god-like bastion of Westernu0026#39;s, is hilarious as the patriarch of the bullying Danby clan. But best of the bunch is Jack Elam (The Far Country/ Vera Cruz/ Gunfight at the OK Corral), who playing the town character somehow finds himself (in spite of himself) employed as the Sheriffu0026#39;s deputy, turns in a lesson in visual and physical comedy. Fittingly itu0026#39;s Elam who closes the film out with a suitably knowing piece of smart.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt lacks some great scenic photography and the score is a bit too much Keystone Coppery, but really this is about the excellent script and the players bringing it to life. A Western comedy gem. 9/10”