Support Your Local Gunfighter

Plot synopsis:
Latigo Smith (Garner), a gambler and confidence man, is traveling by train in frontier-era Colorado with the rich and powerful Goldie (Marie Windsor). Goldie is besotted with Latigo and wants desperately to marry him, a fate that he wants no part of. He manages to slip off the train at Purgatory, a jerkwater mining town. Assessing the situation, he discovers that two rival companies of miners, led by Taylor Barton (Harry Morgan) and Colonel Ames (John Dehner), are racing each other to find a "mother lode" of gold buried somewhere nearby. Massive dynamite blasts periodically rock the town to its foundations, creating or embellishing various moments of comic relief throughout the film.
Latigo consults the town doctor (Dub Taylor) about an embarrassing problem that is not immediately revealed, but turns out to be a Goldie-related tattoo that he learns, to his chagrin, cannot be removed. Latigo's seminal weakness is gambling; he soon loses all of his money, and more, at roulette, playing his "lucky" number (23/red). After hearing a rumor that the infamous gunslinger "Swifty" Morgan (Chuck Connors) is expected in town, Latigo concocts a scam: With the help of amiable ne'er-do-well Jug May (Jack Elam) impersonating Swifty, he schemes to pay off his debts and skip town before the real Swifty makes his appearance. In the process, Latigo attracts the attention of Patience "The Sidewinder" Barton (Suzanne Pleshette), the hot-tempered daughter of Taylor, who desperately wants to escape this backwater frontier existence, attend "Miss Hunter's College on the Hudson River, New York, For Young Ladies of Good Families", and live a life of refinement in New York City. Latigo falls hard for Patience, and when he and Jug side with the Bartons in a dispute, Ames sends a telegram to Swifty informing him of the situation.
Swifty arrives in town and immediately challenges the hapless Jug to a gunfight; but at the appointed time and place, Latigo is there in place of Jug, sitting atop a donkey loaded with crates of dynamite in an attempt to bluff the gunfighter. Swifty calls Latigo's bluff; but as he draws his six-shooter, a particularly massive mining blast startles him, and he shoots himself in the foot. The blast also panics the donkey, who charges into the Bartons' saloon with Latigo aboard, blowing the building to smithereens; but the blast uncovers the mother lode, which conveniently sits beneath the Bartons' land. The resulting inferno also fortuitously burns off Latigo's troublesome tattoo, while miraculously leaving him uninjured.
Latigo finally wins big at roulette, betting $10,000 of the Bartons' money (on 23/red). Latigo and Patience, now both rich beyond their wildest dreams, are married. Jug narrates the outcomes from the back of a train carrying the happy couple off to the east coast: Patience doesn't get to go to Miss Hunter's College, but sends her seven daughters there; Swifty is still trying to get his boot off; and Jug becomes a big star in Italian westerns.

Tags: comedy

Review:
"Support Your Local Sheriff" was a very funny movie, so essentially the same cast and director to make another movie in the same style.
"Support Your Local Gunfighter" is funnier without reference at all to "Sheriff", and if "Sheriff" hadn't been so good the flaws in "Gunfighter" wouldn't be so noticeable.Except for some mild language and extensive (and very funny violence), it's unobjectionable.
Like "Sheriff", "Gunfighter" has James Garner as a western hero playing against the grain.
In "Sheriff" he was a capable man "Just passing through on his way to Australia", and who, accepting the position of sheriff to clean up a town, seemed not to comprehend the western conventions the other characters were foisting onto him.In "Gunfighter", Garner is a west-hating coward who makes a living off women by his good looks.
Unfortunately the mayor (Harry Morgan) and his wackaloon daughter (Suzanne Pleshette) think he's "Swifty" Morgan, a gunfighter sent for by a business rival (John Dehner).
Garner persuades them the gunfighter really is his newfound sidekick (Jack Elam), takes the money, and prepares to blow town.Chuck Connors, arriving at the end as the real "Swifty", proves, a decade before airplane, that having serious actors play deadpan in well-written comedies can be very funny indeed.Don't watch it on the same week-end as "Sheriff".
James Garner was always good in westerns (just watch the original "Maverick" series if you don't believe me), but he was never more in his element than he is in "Support your Local Gunfighter".This has got to be one of the funniest westerns (besides "Blazing Saddles") I've ever seen.
There are too many good things in this film to even hint at, so I'll just insist that you support James Garner and draw on this "Gunfighter".Ten stars.
Garner's wonderful in this spoof, which is a follow-up to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.
Not a sequel,but a companion piece to Support Your Local Sheriff,and a very funny spoof in it's own right.The cast underplayed it beautifully(not like todays hit you over the head variety).A special mention to Jack Elam,who had me in stitches.He was the master of the false bravado.Oldtime western fans will love it..
Not as good as "Support Your Local Sheriff" but still funny.
This was put out in 1971 because the 1969 Western spoof "Support Your Local Sheriff" had been a big hit.
Also around are Taylor (Harry Morgan) who hired him, his high strung daughter Patience (Suzanne Pleshette) and Jug May (Jack Elam) who becomes his helper.This isn't as fun as the earlier one because most of the jokes here were already used or are pretty bad (the explosions the town has every once in a while was a poor running gag).
Garner arrives in a mining town and everyone thinks he's the gunfighter Swifty Morgan sent for by Dehner.
Garner becomes friends with Jack Elam and the next thing he knows Suzanne Pleshette is trying to shoot him or run him down.
Riotous as well as delightful Western spoof compellingly directed by Burt Kennedy with entertaining and amusing scenes in which a racketeer decides to go with the mistaken identity and use it to his profitable advantage along with his bumbling sidekick .
Deliberately cliché-filled , ironical Western with top-notch starring duo as James Garner as a likable swindler and Suzanne Pleshette as fem-lib daughter and his love interest , both of whom giving great lots of fun .
The film talks about a con man just passing through who gets roped into being a false gunfighter (James Garner) who at the end meets his nemesis , the real infamous Pistolero named "Swiftie" Morgan (Chuck Connors) , the fastest finger in the west .
In Purgatory two rival companies of miners, led by Taylor Barton (Henry Morgan) and Colonel Ames (John Dehner) , are in a frenetic round-the-clock race to seek "the motherlode" of gold buried somewhere under the town .
This is a follow-up , not a sequel to ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (1969) also starred by James Garner , Jack Elam and Harry Morgan .
The formula deals to enhance the comics observations of the western originated on the decade 60s 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¨ .
Remaining support cast is excellent , such as : Harry Morgan , Henry Jones , Joan Blondell , John Dehner , Willis Bouchey , Dub Taylor , Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez , Ellen Corby , Gene Evans , Ben Cooper , Kathleen Freeman and Marie Windsor replaced Marilyn Maxwell as "Goldie".
This raucous Western spoof is a James Garner vehicle , if you like his particular performance , you'll enjoy this one ..
This movie, while funny in many places, pales in comparison to the earlier Support Your Local Sheriff.
All of the actors who were in both movies did a better job in the first one and Joan Hackett was surprisingly better than Suzanne Pleshette.They just aired them back to back and the superiority of Sheriff was glaringly apparent.
A man named Latigo (James Garner) arrives in a mining town and pits two warring factions against each other.
Disappointing follow-up to Support Your Local Sheriff.
This is unfortunate as the character Garner played in the last film was much more fun to watch.
She's nowhere near as likable as Joan Hackett in Support Your Local Sheriff.
Jack Elam plays a similar role to the last film but not as funny.
Both companies think he is a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to drive the other out of town.Another reviewer pointed out that even after all this time (42 years as I write this) the film is still funny and fresh.
But what it is is a rollicking good comedy with a cast of some of the best players around.Burt Kennedy brought over a whole flock of people from the other 'Support' film starting with James Garner and Jack Elam.
But he keeps getting cast as these conman comics because he's so darn good at it.As for Jack Elam, he became an almost permanent fixture in Burt Kennedy projects as a result of Support Your Local Sheriff.
But in the sixties he began using that same look for comedy and never really played serious after becoming a Burt Kennedy regular.Garner and Elam are a pair of amiable drifters who wind up in a mining town called Purgatory.
It isn't, but Garner and Elam play it for all it's worth.Suzanne Pleshette steps into the Calamity Jane wannabe part that Joan Hackett did in Support Your Local Sheriff and Pleshette does it most effectively.
You've got to see Garner with that line about a spur and a dying cowhand's last wish.Even Chuck Connors as the real gunfighter playing it absolutely straight comes in for some good laughs.
It's interesting how this isn't a sequel to Support Your Local Sheriff, even though it features many of the same actors.
Even though I don't like "Gunfigher" nearly as much as "Sheriff", I think I understand why I don't like it as much as its predecessor.Without going on and on about the differences  "Sheriff" offers idealistic and hero-worshiping viewers like me a character who Waltzes through life with complete confidence, solving problems quickly and easily."Gunfighter", on the other hand, is about a morally confused person who seems reluctant to do any honest work, and who prefers to make desperate attempts to con the local residences out of a few bucks.The defining moment in "Sheriff" is the scene in which Gardner goes on a picnic with Joanne Hatchet and realizes that his plan to leave town before the big gun battle with the bad guys (which he plans to do) would be a cowardly act."Gunfighter" doesn't contain a scene like this one  and James Garner's character does not have the kind of moral fiber that would permit the story to include this kind of scene.For this reason, "Gunfighter" is decidedly inferior to "Sheriff".But, for the record, "Maverick" (1994  which also starred James Garner  contains many scenes which compare favorably to "Support Your Local Sheriff".Oddly enough, Turner South showed "Maverick" right after "Support Your Local Gunfighter" on the afore-mentioned Sunday night.Weird, eh?.
A follow-up rather than a sequel to "Support Your Local Sheriff", this rollicking Western comedy shares the same director and some of the same cast, but works as a self-contained story.
James Garner is at his most charming as Latigo Smith, a rascally con artist in the Old West who's currently trying to escape Goldie (Marie Windsor), the woman he just married.
He gets off a train in the small time mining town of Purgatory, where he makes friends with amiable old cowhand Jug May (Jack Elam).
He learns that two local bigwigs, Taylor Barton (Harry Morgan) and Colonel Ames (John Dehner), are at war over mining interests, and that Ames has hired a notorious gunslinger named 'Swifty' Morgan.
Then, inevitably, the real Swifty turns up.I wouldn't be honest if I said that I laughed all that much at this movie (scripted by James Edward Grant, and directed by Burt Kennedy, both Western veterans).
Each wants to employ, yes, the fastest gun in the West, who turns out to be, not Elam, but a bald Chuck Connors who's apparently left his rifle and hair back in the '50's.At times, the movie tries a little too hard to keep up the comedic pace and various gimmicks.
Smith comes up with a scheme to pass Jug off as Swifty but it all comes to bite him.This is a follow up to 'Support Your Local Sheriff!' but is not actually a sequel.
James Garner is a great fun cad and I love Jack Elam.
Have a look at his credits on IMDb when you're in the mood for a LOT of scrolling.Kathleen Freeman, hearty and apple-cheeked, often cast as Swedes or other blonde ethnics but also in many general supporting parts where her character either requires respect or fails to give it.
In the age of television, he blended so naturally into the world of The Andy Griffith Show that he could turn up as various characters.Several actors returning from the earlier Support Your Local Sheriff: Harry Morgan, Jack Elam, Henry Jones, and Walter Burke, as well as Freeman and Bouchey (above): a core of supporting players with centuries of constant work in film and television among them.
Of course, there's also the star, James Garner.The fact that so many of the same actors appear in both a good comedy and a very poor attempt at comedy along the same lines serves to remind us that actors can't do much to strengthen a weak script.
I'm paid to make bad lines sound good." But even stars can't make a whole movie sound or look much better than it is.
Supporting players who specialize in types are limited to bringing those types to work and making us associate the inferior movie at hand with the better ones we've seen them in.That, for me, was the only pleasure to be had in watching Support Your Local Gunfighter: watching experienced actors do a job with their usual competence and apparent good cheer, all digging together toward the mother lode of paychecks for everyone..
But that's no excuse as far as I'm concerned, it may also be because there just aren't any present-day actors worthy of filling the shoes of the immortals like, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, even James Garner for that fact.
James Garner is at his best, Jack Elam's performance is simply precious (he was made for comedy) and the supporting cast is just phenomenal, especially the immortal Harry Morgan.
Another great flick of the same genre with the same leading cast is "Support your local Sheriff" I can't decide which one I like better!.
This attempt to duplicate the success of "Support Your Local Sheriff!" fails badly.
(We don't have to like them, just be interested in them.)From the moment he appears, James Garner's character is a cipher -- who cares what happens to him, good or bad?
As with other reviewers, I saw and really liked SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.
Then I saw SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER.
If LOCAL SHERIFF is good french toast, then GUNFIGHTER is a piece of soggy molded five-day-old bread crawling with flies.
Why was Support Your Local Gunfighter filmed most of the time at night?
Not really a sequel to 'Support Your Local Sheriff!', but rather a completely different western comedy from the same director with a substantial number of cast members in common, the similar title and on-screen cast nevertheless renders comparisons unavoidable while watching 'Gunfighter'.
The basic plot here is actually more innovative and clever if anything, clearly inspired by 'Yojimbo' as a conman drifter plays two warring factions in an Old West town against one another by claiming that his clueless recent acquaintance, played by Jack Elam, is a legendary gunfighter.
Everything culminates in a memorable conclusion though with an uncredited Chuck Connors great as the formidable legendary gunfighter, come to town to protect his good name.
Good, but not up to the quality standards of SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.
This film came out two years after SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.
Aside from having very similar titles, both starred James Garner, Harry Morgan and Jack Elam in very similar roles, and the plot itself was so close to the first film it made me wonder why they didn't try something a little more original.
Oddly, despite all the similarities, this second film was actually written long before they even made SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.
However, because of the extreme similarity of the films, I really can't rate SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER any higher--though it's still a nice little Western-comedy.James Garner's character is a bit more amoral and weasel-like in this film as he plays a clever con man determined to take advantage of a war brewing between rival mine owners (Harry Morgan and John Dehner).
The problem is that eventually, the REAL Morgan comes to town and it looks bad for Garner and Elam.While the script was pretty good, there was one big difference about this film that I really disliked.
In SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF, the female lead was played by Joan Hackett and she was a total kook--a lovable kook, but a kook nonetheless.
Here, Susan Pleshette plays a woman who is rather psychotic and IMPOSSIBLE TO LOVE--someone who would have been institutionalized or killed--not someone who would win the man's hand at the end of the film!!
Do yourself a favor and see SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF and only see this second film if you feel you need a lot more of the same..
I would rate the first movie a 9 out of 10—a real gem; the second I'd rate 3 out of 10—disappointing but not a complete waste.The main difference had to do with the likability of Garner's character.
The Garner character hires on as a gunfighter, but, in this account, he's not even an average shooter.
Latigo Smith (Garner) comes into town to get something off his chest, namely, a tattoo, but gets much more than he bargained for in the end..
Hilarious, but not nearly as funny as, or as good overall, as Support Your Local Sheriff, which shares many of the same cast as this one, and the same director.
Burt Kennedy was good with comedy, whether he was directing Garner in this and Support Your Local Sheriff, or he was directing John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in The War Wagon.
Coincidentally, he was in an Italian western, a Sergio Leone film, "Once Upon a Time in the West", playing the role of Snaky, a member of Henry Fonda's character's gang.
One wonders why James Garner's character here wasn't reprised from the prior film that came out two years earlier - "Support Your Local Sheriff".
As with the earlier picture, some of the support players wind up here as well, most notably Harry Morgan and Jack Elam, along with a less than conspicuous assist from character actor Gene Evans.As for Jack Elam, the thought that came to mind while watching was how his character Jug May compared with the recurring role he had in the single season TV Western 'The Dakotas' from 1962.
Just as in the earlier 'Sheriff', Elam sides with Garner's character, but this time to pull off a scam whereby he impersonates a notorious gunslinger.
I think I liked him better in the earlier film.As for Chuck Connors portraying the 'real' Swifty Morgan, I had to chuckle a bit, because the only other time I've ever seen him appear as nasty was in a fourth season episode of 'The Rifleman' titled 'The Deadly Image'.
The other thing that seemed kind of funny to me was when Colonel Ames (John Dehner) had a couple of his henchmen blow up the entrance to the mine his men were working to further thwart his local rival Barton Taylor (Harry Morgan).
Though I know I've seen a similar scenario play out in other Westerns, this was the first time that it ever occurred to me that here was a case of a shaft getting the shaft.Well as it turns out, everything goes just right for Latigo Smith (Garner), but don't question the idea of the 'I Love Goldie' tattoo simply disappearing in the story's finale.
But the best had to be Jack Elam spoofing himself at the very end of the picture.