- Destry Rides Again, 8/20/22 (Sat)
Was the west ever this wild? In George Marshall’s 1939 romp, the son of a legendary tough sheriff is called in to bring law and order to an anarchic town controlled by a corrupt rancher after the previous sheriff mysteriously disappears. He attracts ridicule when he emerges from his carriage with a parasol and birdcage and no weapons, but his unorthodox methods and persistence, with help from a voluptuous saloon manager who shifts loyalties, gradually bring the villains to heel.
The film is a parody of a Western from the very opening, when a massive brawl, one of many to come, is taking place in front of the Last Chance Saloon (a name that itself signals a lampoon). Marshall handles crowd scenes with great skill, culminating in the hilarious final scene where the wives, fed up with the men’s uncivilized behavior, do some cleaning up of their own. That in turn nicely sets up the murder scene of two key characters, the final in a number of shooting deaths throughout. The superb script, which reportedly veers sharply from the source novel, offers an abundance of fascinating characters and keeps all its plot strands adeptly in play to the end. Very well filmed and choreographed.
sekenbanashi 