Revisiting the Campiest Western Ever

Saddle up, y’all…

Westerns were very much a part of my growing-up years. Westerns and war pictures. I blame my dad and the advent of the VCR. After a while, I started tuning out when Dad would play a western because they all seemed alike, but when I saw 1969’s Support Your Local Sheriff, it was all over. I was hooked. Now it’s thirty years later and I haven’t seen the film since, so how does it hold up? We shall see.

The town of Calendar in the Colorado Territory sprang up after gold was discovered during a funeral, in the deceased’s grave, no less, and seemingly overnight it went from a tent city to a bustling boomtown. It’s rollicking, noisy, and busy. Everyone has vested interest in the gold mines in one way or another and they also have way too much time on their hands. Fights of various kinds break out on a regular basis, and Pa Danby (Walter Brennan) and his three sons, Joe (Bruce Dern), Luke (Dick Peabody) and Tom (Gene Evans) basically own the town.

Problem is, Calendar can’t keep a sheriff, as they either keep getting killed or they bolt. The town council is getting desperate.

Into the fray walks Jason McCullough (James Garner), an extremely savvy fellow who’s bound for Australia because he sees it as undiscovered country, but he’s also heard about the gold in Calendar and wants to make a few bucks before he shoves off.

Jason’s introduction to the town is rather auspicious, as he witnesses a fight break out in the street when two coaches are at an impasse, and he’s very interested in the pretty girl he sees belting people along with all the men. Then another brawl happens while he’s eating lunch at the local restaurant, only that time Jason stands off to the side casually eating while random guys throw each other over the sawhorse tables. And finally, Jason is in the local saloon when Joe Danby shoots a guy and claims self-defense even though he drew first.

When Jason sees that Calendar needs a sheriff, he’s up for the job, and while the town council is skeptical at first, Jason wins them over with his excellent deduction skills and perfect marksmanship. He’s nonplussed when he finds out the local jail has no bars on the cells because the bars are on backorder, and instead draws some chalk lines where the bars should be and strategically dribbles red paint on the floor. He also takes on a deputy, Jake (Jack Elam), whose previous occupation was shoveling horse manure at the local stable.

Right from the get-go it’s clear that Jason is a master at being one step ahead of everyone. When he puts Joe Danby in jail for murdering the guy in the saloon, Joe is scornfully gleeful about the fact that his cell has no bars on it until he notices the splotch of red paint. “That’s the poor fella that crossed the line earlier today,” says Jason.

Red paint or no red paint, Joe tries to sneak out, and he’s horrified that Jason is not only waiting for him outside the sheriff’s office, but that his gun doesn’t have any bullets in it (Joe’s gun, not Jason’s). A similar de-loading also happens to dear old Pa Danby when he comes to see about his son, and Pa is forced to admit that Joe is kind of a dope. That doesn’t stop Pa and his other son from trying to break Joe out of jail later, although by then the bars are firmly in place.

Jason does have a life outside the sheriff’s office, though. His room and board are provided by Mayor Ollie Perkins (Harry Morgan), whose daughter, Prudy (Joan Hackett) is scrappy, a crack shot with a rifle and talented in the kitchen. Naturally, Jason and Prudy find each other very interesting, but the Danbys are restless and various issues will have to be dealt with.

Oh my word, I forgot how campy this movie is. It’s a western on happy pills. I kept expecting to see words like “Bang,” and “Kapow,” to come up on the screen during the fight scenes. James Garner is the star in more ways than one, as he not only plays the lead role, but his production company made the film. After a slow start and mixed reviews (such as this one from Roger Ebert), word of mouth spread and the film was one of the top movies of 1969.

Now, granted, the movie isn’t super hard to predict. We all know it’s going to have a happy ending. There are plenty of gags from start to finish, mostly for everyone else but Garner, who’s the eternal straight man. Everyone else gets a faceful of mud in one way or another and he sits coolly by appraising it all.

It’s a good thing, too, because even a campy movie has to be believable on some level, and the film doesn’t exactly read realism, although there’s no reason why it should. It not only has the look of a sitcom, but everything is SO clean. Every building looks shiny and freshly painted, there’s no horse manure anywhere, and even the dirt seems clean. Well, most of it–there is a lot of mud.

I guess I’m slightly more jaded than I was in high school, or maybe I’ve seen too many movies since then (imagine that?), but it was fun going back to Support Your Local Sheriff. If anyone hasn’t seen it, they’re in for a treat. If anyone has seen it, I hope they can go back to it, because it never stops being crazy fun.

For more Legends of Western Cinema, please check out Hamlette’s Soliloquy, Along the Brandywine, and Meanwhile, In Rivendell… Thanks for hosting this, ladies–it was a blast, as always! Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you on Saturday for another review…

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Support Your Local Sheriff is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon. It is also free to stream for Prime customers.

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