Writer & director Burt Kennedy concentrated largely on writing and directing westerns, some of them quite hilarious, such as "Support Your Local" and "Support Your Local Gunfighter" during his 44-year Hollywood career. "Dirty Dingus Magee" isn't as funny as the two "Support Your Local" spoofs that Kennedy helmed with James Garner. Part of the problem may be that Frank Sinatra doesn't make as amusing a protagonist as Garner. Furthermore,it isn't as funny as "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys." Considering the remarkable writing talent involved in this snickering horse opera, "Dirty Dingus Magee" should have emerged as far more than a fair-to-middling oater that generates its mirth from inconsistent helpings of satire, double entendre, and lowest common denominator slapstick that never really comes together with the cohesion of the "Support" westerns. Scenarists Tom Waldman of "Inspector Clouseau," Frank Waldman of "The Return of the Pink Panther," and Joseph Heller of "Catch 22" make a formidable troika. They adapted David Markson's novel "The Ballad of Dirty Dingus Magee," and they had to change Markson's 19-year old protagonist so that middle-aged Frank Sinatra would be acceptable in the lead role. Unfortunately, the humor here tends to more miss than hit, and some of it may flies so quickly that it might be noticeable only during subsequent viewings. The best set-piece in this light-hearted sagebrusher takes place when Brigadier General George (John Dehner of "The Left-Handed Gun") orders an emergency retreat drill at a bordello and his half-clad troopers scramble out windows galore to mount their horses. Some of the one-liners are memorable, too. Cathouse madam Belle Nops (Anne Jackson of "The Tiger Makes Out") remarks to one of her girls: "These army drills are hard on the girls." Belle's girl China Poppy (Marya Thomas of "Stay Away, Joe") replies, "Soldiers hard on, too." Occasionally, Kennedy replays one of his better "Support Your Local Sheriff" gags when our hero Dingus Magee struggles to open a strongbox festooned with chains. Magee wedges the box in the crotch of a tree, ties a rope from it to his saddle pommel and then gallops away. Predictably, instead of ripping the strongbox open, Magee is jerked unceremoniously backwards off his horse. Occasionally, Kennedy inserts quick antics, like a cavalry trooper leaving a prostitute who hands him a rooster and tells him to take his "cock" with him. Incidentally, the word dingus is Yiddish for penis.
The shallow story concerns an insignificant outlaw with a $10 bounty on his head, Dingus Magee (Frank Sinatra of "Sergeants 3"), who is working at a stagecoach relay station when we first encounter him. A stagecoach stops to let the passengers stretch their legs and get a bite to eat. Magee recognizes his old friend Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill (George Kennedy of "Bandolero!"), but Hoke does his best to ignore him. Eventually, Magee shows Hoke where he can urinate without attracting attention. When Hoke turns his back on Magee, our anti-heroic protagonist nudges him with a six-shooter and snatches his derby. All along Hoke has assured Magee that he has only seven dollars in his wallet. As it turns out, Hoke has $400 stashed in his derby hat, and Magee steals it. Later, after the stagecoach pulls into the two-bit town of Yerkey's Hole, Hoke searches frantically for the sheriff and winds up discussing his predicament to Belle Nops, the madam runs the bordello and serves a mayor. Belle appoints Hoke as sheriff, and "Dirty Dingus Magee" depicts the back and forth shenanigans between Magee and Hoke as Hoke captures him and Magee escapes. Magee has a running romance with a young, sex-addicted, Indian maiden, Anna Hot Water (Michele Carey of "El Dorado"), who utters everything in an infantile idiom. For example, she refers to sex as "bim-bam." She addresses our hero as "Ding-goose." When General George threatens to remove his troops because the local Native American population poses no threat to the settlers, Belle and Hoke turn Dingus' escape from Hoke's jail into an Indian uprising.
What possessed Frank Sinatra to this silly horse opera remains a mystery. He cavorts about in a toupee that makes him look like the large-eyed war orphan "Dondi" of the Gus Edson and Irwin Hasen comic strip that newspapers carried for thirty years. George Kennedy wears his attire so that he looks like Charlie Chaplin. A collection of seasoned western movie supporting actors, including Jack Elam, Don 'Red' Barry, Henry Jones, Paul Fix, and Harry Carey, Jr., show up for this half-baked hilarity. Lois Nettleton is cast as local schoolmarm Prudence Frost who is a closet nymphomaniac, an inversion of the formulaic schoolmarm in westerns. Kennedy and his scribes stand every western cliché on its head, but "Dirty Dingus Magee" labors for most of its laughs.
The shallow story concerns an insignificant outlaw with a $10 bounty on his head, Dingus Magee (Frank Sinatra of "Sergeants 3"), who is working at a stagecoach relay station when we first encounter him. A stagecoach stops to let the passengers stretch their legs and get a bite to eat. Magee recognizes his old friend Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill (George Kennedy of "Bandolero!"), but Hoke does his best to ignore him. Eventually, Magee shows Hoke where he can urinate without attracting attention. When Hoke turns his back on Magee, our anti-heroic protagonist nudges him with a six-shooter and snatches his derby. All along Hoke has assured Magee that he has only seven dollars in his wallet. As it turns out, Hoke has $400 stashed in his derby hat, and Magee steals it. Later, after the stagecoach pulls into the two-bit town of Yerkey's Hole, Hoke searches frantically for the sheriff and winds up discussing his predicament to Belle Nops, the madam runs the bordello and serves a mayor. Belle appoints Hoke as sheriff, and "Dirty Dingus Magee" depicts the back and forth shenanigans between Magee and Hoke as Hoke captures him and Magee escapes. Magee has a running romance with a young, sex-addicted, Indian maiden, Anna Hot Water (Michele Carey of "El Dorado"), who utters everything in an infantile idiom. For example, she refers to sex as "bim-bam." She addresses our hero as "Ding-goose." When General George threatens to remove his troops because the local Native American population poses no threat to the settlers, Belle and Hoke turn Dingus' escape from Hoke's jail into an Indian uprising.
What possessed Frank Sinatra to this silly horse opera remains a mystery. He cavorts about in a toupee that makes him look like the large-eyed war orphan "Dondi" of the Gus Edson and Irwin Hasen comic strip that newspapers carried for thirty years. George Kennedy wears his attire so that he looks like Charlie Chaplin. A collection of seasoned western movie supporting actors, including Jack Elam, Don 'Red' Barry, Henry Jones, Paul Fix, and Harry Carey, Jr., show up for this half-baked hilarity. Lois Nettleton is cast as local schoolmarm Prudence Frost who is a closet nymphomaniac, an inversion of the formulaic schoolmarm in westerns. Kennedy and his scribes stand every western cliché on its head, but "Dirty Dingus Magee" labors for most of its laughs.