User reviews

Now, I will even watch James Garner in a bad movie. That whole worldly wise, yet winsome thing he has going makes you think of that best bud you had in junior high.

But this is actually a very good, drown yourself in a bag of popcorn, and laugh your cares away film.

Is it a western parody or humorous homage to some of the great character actors in American western? It certainly doesn't have a mean bone in its body and doesn't rely on shock humor to get you chuckling. This film respects its predecessors and has good clean fun with them.

It's a DVD you can easily find for under $10, and well worth it.

Jason McCullough (James Garner) is just passing through town on his way to Australia (!). Needing money, he takes the job of sheriff and quickly finds himself at odds with the criminal Danby family. Very funny western comedy. It sends up the western genre gently without being condescending or insulting like so many western comedies are. James Garner is terrific as the level-headed sheriff, as quick with his wits as with a gun. Great character actor Jack Elam is lots of fun as his sidekick. Bruce Dern is hilarious as the dim-witted Joe Danby. Walter Brennan plays the patriarch of the Danby clan. One would assume this is a send-up of his role in My Darling Clementine. He's very funny as well. Harry Morgan is solid as always. Joan Hackett as the hotheaded Prudy nearly steals the show. I say nearly because Garner's flawless performance can't be beat. It's really a superb cast in a must-see film.

This is a classic example of a genre parody. It's not one of those jokes-coming-at-100mph kind of spoofs (such as Blazing Saddles), it simply plays everything by genre rules. It shares this with the 1939 version of Destry Rides Again, but it goes much further in exhibiting the hilarious potential of the genre by just slightly exaggerating the kind of improbable situations classic Westerns so often throw at us.

To appreciate this film properly you need to be familiar with the classic Western genre, mostly to understand how the genre works when played straight but you may also recognise some movie references.

The cast is absolutely marvellous, James Garner is a commanding lead, Jack Elam has never been better, and there are first-rate character actors for all the supporting roles. Especially Harry Morgan and Walter Brennan are excellent in roles very similar to ones they played straight in High Noon and My Darling Clementine, respectively.

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 it'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.

Support 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 it's evident that Messrs Kennedy & Bowers knew exactly what they were doing.

Roger 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 that's kind of the core of a parody movie is it not? Bowers & 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. It's not so much biting the hand that feeds you, but more a tasteful appreciation of what was sometimes fed.

Full 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, he's a hero that'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 & Dern play it firmly with a glint in the eye and tongue in cheek, and Brennan, a god-like bastion of Western'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 Sheriff's deputy, turns in a lesson in visual and physical comedy. Fittingly it's Elam who closes the film out with a suitably knowing piece of smart.

It 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

Spoof Western with magnificent starring duo as James Garner as a likable sheriff and Joan Hackett as fem-lib mayor's daughter , both of whom giving great lots of fun . In the old west, a man becomes a sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough. The film talks about a gambler just passing through who gets roped into being sheriff (James Garner) who finds his nemesis an old baron land (Walter Brennan) . One trouble-shooting sheriff always puts his finger on it or in it , no wonder they call him : The fastest finger in the west . The sheriff cleans a lawless town in his own highly individual way and is helped by an inept deputy (Jack Elam) . In the end, he uses ingenuity instead and gets to tame a lawless mining town against all odds .

This wacky spoof is packed with mayhem , lots of silly laughters and great entertainment and fun . Most of the laughs and sight gags galore work acceptably well ; humor is also bold and intelligent with a myriad of imaginative sketches . Demystified Western was one of a group of much-imitated which changed the concept of this particular genre each bent on disproving a popular myth , yet tinged with humor , spoof and combining with anti-heroes , and the inevitable decadence protagonists . The formula deals to enhance the comics observations of the western originated on the decade 60 with the following filmmakers : Andrew McLagen and Burt Kennedy , fine director of this movie, and a bit later on , Mel Brooks directed the indispensable ¨Blazing saddles¨ , a surrealist , extreme and gross-out spoof with the ordinary bunch of loonies and loopies . Burt Kennedy directed similar Western blending comedy such as : ¨Support your local gunfighter (one of his better spoof Western)¨ , ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (his highpoint) , ¨Dirty Dingus Mcgee¨ , ¨War Wagon¨ and ¨ The Good guys and bad guys¨ . The picture is wonderfully amused and enjoyable with James Garner as a tough but sympathetic sheriff with his Maverick image who uses brains as well as brawny and guns . William Bowers's screenplay besides having more than its fair scraps of funny lines ,throws up rich personages . Thus , Walter Brennan makes a robustly likable characterization as well as Bruce Dern as a snide gunman and Harry Morgan as the Mayor . Special mention to Jack Elam as the old brawler clearly relishing his comic relief . Colorful cinematography rightly shot by excellent cameraman Harry Stradling , Burt Kennedy's usual . Jolly and agreeable musical score by Jeff Alexander .

This very funny motion picture was well directed by Burt Kennedy . He initially was screenwriter , his initial effort, ¨Seven men from now¨ (1956), was a superb western, the first of the esteemed collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott. Kennedy wrote most of that series, as well as a number of others for Batjac, although it would be nearly 20 years before Wayne actually appeared in the film of a Kennedy script. In 1960 Kennedy got his first work as a filmmaker on a western, ¨The Canadians¨ (1961), but it was a critical failure . He turned to television where he wrote and directed episodes of "Lawman" (1958), "The Virginian " (1962) and most notably ¨Combat!"(1962). He returned to films in 1965 with the successful Te Canadians (1965), later producing and directing the pilot for the TV series of the same name. ¨Support you local sheriff¨ results to be one of his best Western . The film will appeal to absurd, unruly , wacky Western comedy fans . This raucous Western spoof is a James Garner vehicle , if you like his particular performance ,you'll enjoy this one .

Every actor perfectly cast, every line perfectly inflected, this was a work of pure comic genius that draws on all the stock cast of characters found in western novels and movies from the dawn of the genre. Great fun.

This film really should be in the IMDB top 50. Alas, just as with the Oscars, comedies never get the same respect as other genres.

It also seems that comedies more quickly feel dated. Not this one, however. Although it obviously doesn't have today's special effects, and quick-edit

sensibilities, it still feels almost as if it could be a modern flick.

It is as perfect as a comedy can be. Never a dull moment or lagging scene.

Excellent screenplay with lots of quick jabs. An absolutely perfect cast.

If you're reading this because you actually haven't seen this flick yet, and you like easy-to-digest comedies, you can't miss with this one. Ten stars.

Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

Starring James Garner on the rise, and riding the new tide of interest in the revised western (along with the great Spaghetti Westerns), this is surpisingly nimble and good. It's vivid and cheerful, and well written with flunny comebacks and a wry sense of absurdity. That's not to say it's a great movie-it isn't "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" at all-but that it's fun like the best television of the time, and with much higher production values. (It reminded me of the slightly earlier "A Big Hand for the Little Lady.") Director Burt Kennedy was a writer more than a director, at first, but he didn't have a hand in the screennplay here (though it is so sharp at times, you wonder if there were some little adjustments as they went). Garner is clearly the star here, and he's handsome with that pleasant smile that made him famous (and carries him through many scenes). Around him are some veteren character actors (including the great Walter Brennan) and they help overall even if they are sometimes caricatured a bit. In truth, the movie might have tipped into greatness with some more subtle direction, getting the irony and silliness to have some style or weight somehow. There's a lot of talent here, a fun idea for a story, and excellent dialog. See it, yes. Good enough that even the sequel ("Support Your Local Gunfighter" with Kennedy and Garner both back in their slots and without an exclamation point) is worth a casual look.

There hasn't been a decade since 1969 as loaded with classic Westerns as was that one year: "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid," "The Wild Bunch," "True Grit," "Once Upon A Time In The West," and this one, the least appreciated but easiest to watch.

James Garner is such a comfortable onscreen presence, it's hard to appreciate all the fine work he does in this film. It's a clever comedy that is perhaps a bit too anxious to please, but can make you laugh all the same. The supporting actors are tremendous, too. It's funny to see Dern play such a naif, but Brennan has the best time of it. His expression when Garner sticks his finger in the barrel of Brennan's pistol is priceless.

No scorpion fights, no blown-up trains, no Italian dubbing or even Strother Martin. But I can't think of a better family movie, or just something to beat the blues.

The town of Calendar, Colorado becomes a gold boom town overnight when the town folks discover gold in a fresh grave during a funeral. It's the lawless wild west. The town is held hostage to the Danbys since they have to transport the gold through their territories. The town council including Olly Perkins (Harry Morgan) is desperate to find a new sheriff. Jason McCullough (James Garner) is new in town and gets into a argument with Joe Danby (Bruce Dern). Jason decides to take the job of sheriff which comes with room and board at the Perkins. His first job is to arrest Joe Danby and he recruits Jake (Jack Elam) as his deputy. Olly's daughter Prudy Perkins (Joan Hackett) is a hothead, accident-prone klutz.

It's a fun slapstick western. James Garner is quite a sly leading man. He makes this work. Basically he's the only one in on the jokes. He's great at that character. The jail cell idea is hilarious. Jack Elam has the best look ever. For me, he will always be the crazy doctor in 'The Cannonball Run'. The weak point is probably Joan Hackett. She's fine in comedic acting but the chemistry isn't really there.

These comedy westerns don't do it for me really. I imagine it's because I haven't seen a lot of old American westerns and therefore the joke could slip past me. Support Your Local Sheriff seems to universally get good praise and some even say they couldn't stop laughing. I did chuckle a few times as some jokes worked fine but overall I didn't find very much to enjoy.

The cast, however, is great. James Garner plays these kind of roles better than anyone (you see him do the same thing in every Rockford Files episode) and he's the main reason for checking this film out. Others were fun and engaging in their roles, I particularly liked Bruce Dern as the villain.

But the jokes seem to slip by me when it comes to these comedy westerns. I recently watched Rustler's Rhapsody and Blazing Saddles and they were pretty much "yawn-fests".

Sheriff is an OK way to spend 90 minutes, not much more.

This is yet another of those "they don't make 'em like this anymore" gems.

And, this western is a comic gem. Okay, it's a scream!

The whole cast is perfect, playing perfectly to a wonderful script. While all the action circles around the perfectly cast James Garner, who is light and amusing. Although he is funny, he's still the straight man to to all the town loonies.

Bruce Dern and Jack Elam are over the top hilarious as a dimwitted bad guy and dimwitted "town character" respectively. Harry Morgan is as funny as he's ever been, which is saying a lot considering his role in What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? Walter Brennan is typically excellent in one of his later roles as the typically grump head of the bad guy's clan. Even the lesser roles, such as Kathleen Freeman as a passerby, are delightful in her 2-minute scene.

The late Joan Hackett is the mayor's daughter, the madcap, eccentric Prudy. plays comedy really well. She gets lovelier every time I see this. She's as beautiful as she is funny in this and she's a riot. She left us way too soon.

I wish one of our revival houses would run this coupled with The Cheyanne Social Club, another delightfully comic western from that great era in films. That would be one entertaining night at the movies!

"Support Your Local Sheriff!", like most comedy films, creates a sort of alternative reality dimension in which the characters are more bumbling and strange, behave completely unlike anybody would have in real life, and produce jokes that only the audience finds effective. And unlike others I can think of, "Support Your Local Sheriff!" does this very well. James Garner plays a take-it-easy man "on his way to Australia" who stops to take his first job ever as a lawman in a boomtown somewhere, sometime in the Old West. And right from the beginning, things really start to get awkward.

Garner shares the screen with other popular and talented actors such as Jack Elam, Harry Morgan, Walter Brennan, Joan Hackett, Gene Evans, and Bruce Dern. I felt the performances were very well-done, most noticeable for Harry Morgan as the town's loud-speaking, acting-before-thinking mayor and Jack Elam as Garner's reluctantly appointed deputy, having been "promoted" from "shoveling horse...working around the stables." Walter Brennan did a sort of parody on some of his other villainous characters, still maintaining a good performance and still being a comical character without making any of the modern "funny" tactics such as acting out of the ordinary.

That goes for the entire film. Even though it's a comedy and nothing in this film would really happen in a sane world of sane people, it makes it look as if it COULD happen. That's the problem with comedy films nowadays: they don't make things look like they MIGHT happen. This film does.

Bottom line, I recommend "Support Your Local Sheriff!" for its outstanding way of blending two quite contrary genres and still making a very effective and entertaining film. I found myself laughing several times and this is definitely the kind of film to suit an entire family just looking for a good, non-serious film that does not taking cliché or distasteful tactics in order to try and make us crack up.

Comedy Westerns are quite a niche genre. When Support your local sheriff was was recommended to me I could only think of a few. Blazing Saddles ( obviously) , Paint Your Wagon and Carry On Cowboy were the ones that spring to mind . I'd never even heard of this film , despite being a fan of Westerns.

McCullough is "passing through on my way to Australia" when he takes a job in a gold rush town. After a startling display of marksmanship, he immediately arrests the youngest son of the evil landowner . A battle of hired guns begins as McCullough continues to tame the town and defeat the gunslingers with a combination of skill and wit.

This definitely feels more like Paint Your Wagon than Blazing Saddles even though it's not a musical . It does have a comical soundtrack , as if there is going to be a slapstick set piece around every corner . There is even the obligatory "fight in the mud scene ".

There are great one liners too . This one especially made me laugh . Harry Morgan is talking to McCullough and he says " My his daughter takes after his dear departed wife and McCullough asks if she died and he says " nope, she just departed."

James Garner is great . He totally looks the part of a sheriff and he manages to do the comedy justice too . There are funnier films around of the period but considering I'd never heard of this a few days ago , I'm glad it was recommended to me .

One of my favorite western comedies; there isn't a false note in the whole film. No matter how many times I've seen it, I always laugh out loud throughout the film. The cast is simply wonderful: James Garner is playing tongue in cheek as the naive yet witty Sheriff, and Walter Brennan, Bruce Dern and Jack Elam are simply marvelous. Add in the physical comedy of Joan Hackett and it's just a wonderful film. My highest recommendation.

In dire need of a steady income to finance his gold prospecting ambitions, a drifter takes on the dangerous occupation of sheriff in a crime-ridden town simply for the pay, but gradually finds himself won over by the challenges of the job in this western comedy starring James Garner. The film has some truly zany comedic elements, such as a jail cell with no iron bars where Garner keeps a prisoner at bay through psychological intimidation alone. There is also much to like in the film's tale of a reluctant hero overcoming initially shady motives to prove his actual worth. The humour is extremely hit and miss though with lots of loud, slapstick comedy in the mix as brawling, pratfalls in dirty mud and characters whacking each other on the head are played for laughs. Joan Hackett is also introduced a little too obviously as a romantic interest for any sparks between the pair to fly. That said, she has some great moments as she finds herself stuck in places as bizarre as a tree to avoid embarrassing encounters with Garner. The best thing that the film has going for it is Garner's charisma though with memorable bits such as sticking his finger down the barrel of a gun pointed at his face and bravely standing up to the much-feared, ruthless son of a local landowner (Bruce Dern in a wonderfully unbalanced turn) after he kills a man in a cold blood. The film's title was apparently inspired by a series of bumper stickers popular at the time, and it speaks volumes that the words "Support Your Local" are synonymous with this film rather than those stickers nowadays.

There is some type of mistake that this film is rated a 7.5 because I do not see any "awful" reviews.

This film is probably one of the most well written and performed comedies of all time. The entire family can watch it, I love Blazing Saddles, but SYLSherriff film doesn't have to be "off-color" (no pun intended) to be funny. Being that the film is over thirty years old and people tell you they love it ought to tell you something. With many movies I watch, it is easy to be critical of what they could have done better to improve the movie, not with this one.

SYLGunfighter is also a good, funny movie, (and a must see) but I think loses a little luster because Garner is not as heroic.

A cast of several well known actors, some of them bringing on one of their top performances, in a charming movie that does not pretend to be anything else than a western comedy.

This movie was directed by Burt Kennedy, a man who directed a lot of westerns but this one wasn't as good as some of his other ones like The Rounders and The Good Guys And The Bad Guys. This is a pretty well known film that is well liked but i found it a bit overrated and i prefer Blazing Saddles to this movie. The movie has James Garner just drifting West towards Austrila but it's taken him several years and he hasn't gotten that far. Garner arrives in a town in which the three previous sheriff's have been killed or ran away and he decides he wants the job. Garner winds up hiring Jack Elam as deputy even though he doesn't it and the town is basically ruled by Walter Brennan and his three sons. You will be disappointed if you watch this movie expecting a masterpiece but it is a pretty good movie.

Since the consensus on IMDB seems to be that this James Garner vehicle is really outstanding, I'm only adding this short critique to warn hard-boiled and picky viewers that they might be a little disappointed if they're expecting something extraordinary.

Sure, James Garner is as charismatic as ever - though in this picture he perhaps overplays his trademark easygoing persona. The supporting actors are all fine as well, and the film moves along quickly and pleasantly. It's a good movie, sure enough.

But the script is more 'amusing' than funny, and is by no means as original as it is sometimes made out to be. Might seem that way to folks who aren't western addicts, but if you've seen Destry Rides Again or The Boy From Oklahoma or Cat Ballou or even the Audie Murphy version of Destry, you'll have seen much better satires of the western genre.

And if it's pure laughs in a western you're looking for, The Paleface, Son of Paleface and Alias Jesse James are probably at the top of the heap.

Still, if you're in the mood for something light, colorful and enjoyable, Support Your Local Sheriff will do nicely. And for Garner fans, it will be a delight.