Plot

The Wild West goes wacko when the Greatest Fast-Drawin', Fancy-Dressin', Silver-Spurred, Geetar Playin', Singing Cowboy movie matinee idol Rex O'Herlihan hits the saddle in this cockeyed, affectionate send-up of the '40s B-movie Western.

While the audience watches a black and white horse opera, a narrator's voice wonders what such a movie would be like today. Rex O'Herlihan, The Singing Cowboy, finds himself in color and enters a cliché-ridden town, in which the evil cattle baron (Andy Griffith) and the new Italian cowboys (who always wear raincoats no matter how hot it gets) join forces to get him and the sheep ranchers to leave the valley.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Tumblin' tumbleweeds: The Wild West goes wacko when the Greatest Fast-Drawin', Fancy-Dressin', Silver-Spurred, Geetar Playin', Singing Cowboy movie matinee idol Rex O'Herlihan (Tom Berenger) hits the saddle in Rustlers' Rhapsody, a cockeyed, affectionate send-up of the '40s B-movie Western. Classic Western stereotypes and clichés get turned on their ear when our fearless hero, fully dressed in white and atop his dancing horse Wildflower, rides into the tackiest town west of the Pecos to do good deeds and defy desperados. Written and directed by Hugh Wilson, who was responsible for the hilarious Police Academy (1984), Rustlers' Rhapsody stars Andy Griffith and Marilu Henner.—Anonymous

An amusing spoof of the good 'ole westerns back in the halcyon days when all the cliches were held up as icons, this parody by Hugh Wilson works best for savvy audiences. Rex O'Herlihan (Tom Berenger) is a singing cowboy with a wardrobe straight out of the Hollywood westerns of the '40s - he worships his horse, and has a trusty sidekick too. Every town he wanders into has a sheriff on the dole, a shady cattle rancher, a prostitute with a heart of gold, an innocent young damsel, a town drunk, and the standard bad guys in black hats and long coats (Spaghetti-western style) who brutalize the poor sheep ranchers. After setting things straight in each identical town as he goes, Rex is beginning to feel like a re-run junky when he saunters into a town that is slightly different - and the parodies continue.—Anonymous