Support Your Local Sheriff

Director Burt Kennedy's Western is a bawdy, all-out parody that skewers every cliche the genre has to offer. There's Jason McCullough (James Garner), the sharpshooting stranger passing through town who becomes sheriff; the Danbys, a villainous gang who terrorises the entire community; Prudy Perkins (Joan Hackett), the lily white maiden who wants to marry the sheriff; and the local drunk (the great Jack Elam) whom McCullough appoints as his deputy. Although McCullough manages to arrest Joe Danby (Bruce Dern), the rest of the Danby gang is set on busting him out of prison. Garner is utterly charming as the earnest hero of this entertaining tale, cool and calm as a cucumber; don't miss the scene in which he first imprisons Joe Danby in a cell without bars.