The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Alan Rafkin

Writers:

Edmund L. Hartmann (screenplay) and
Frank Tashlin (screenplay) ...

Genre:

Comedy | Western

Plot:

Jesse W. Haywood graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west "to fight oral ignorance."...

Plot Keywords:

Stagecoach | Gunfight | Remake | Wild West | Smuggling

Cast

Don Knotts	...	Dr. Jesse W. Heywood
Barbara Rhoades	...	Penelope 'Bad Penny' Cushings
Jackie Coogan	...	Matthew Basch
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Rev. Zachary Gant (as Donald Barry)
Ruth McDevitt	...	Olive
Frank McGrath	...	Mr. Remington
Terry Wilson	...	Welsh
Carl Ballantine	...	Abel Swanson
Pat Morita	...	Wong
Robert Yuro	...	Arnold the Kid
Herb Voland	...	Dr. Friedlander (as Herbert Voland)
Fay DeWitt	...	Violet
Dub Taylor	...	Pop McGovern
Hope Summers	...	Celia
Dick Wilson	...	Black Eagle (Indian chief)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Herb Voland's first film role.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Heywood is following the wagons through the desert (after the outlaws take Penny) there are tracks from the wagon wheels in the sand, but no tracks form the horses that were pulling the wagons.

Quotes:

Jesse Heywood: [very drunk] I'm not a failure. I'm a dentist, a REAL dentist! And I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna spread dental health across the West like a plague!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Beatniks (#5.15)" (1992)

Soundtrack:

The Shakiest Gun in the West

kids will love it

This is one of the most surprising films I have recently seen. I first saw it as a kid and liked it. However, I saw it again recently after one of my students brought it in and asked if his 8th grade history class could watch it. Well, I figured the movie had nothing to do with the class so I made some excuses not to use it. Later in the year, we had a day just before the break and once again he asked if the class could watch it. Well, we were about to do a small unit on the real West, so I reluctantly agreed. The film turned out to be pretty helpful in discussing Hollywood myths about the old West (as it had a few like most Westerns) but I was also VERY surprised to see how much 8th graders today liked the film. This actually says something, because normally these kids would never watch an "ancient" film like this--choosing instead to watch only the latest releases. But the film held their attention and I heard a lot of laughs. It's actually better than I remembered and is far better than a lot of Don Knotts' other films (such as THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET or THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG--yuck).