One of my Dad’s favorite movies and one I remember watching with him every time it was aired on one of the five TV stations of the early seventies, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! is a hilarious western comedy that still lands every joke 50 years after its release.
James Garner is effortlessly cool and funny as Jason McCullough, a quick draw stranger who wanders into a town (on his way to Australia?) made lawless by its exploding gold rush population.
Every actor is at the top of their game as the townsfolk.
Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H*) is Mayor Perkins, who enjoys lawlessness as much as the next cowboy but thinks that Jason might be the perfect new sheriff. Joan Hackett is his hilariously strange, accident-prone daughter Prudy.
Bruce Dern delivers countless laughs as Joe Danby, son of the local power family and brainless card player who shoots an opponent in front of Jason. Watching Garner arrest Dern, throw him in a jail with no widows or bars and convince him to stay put is just one of the laugh-out-loud sequences in a film loaded with them.
Walter Brennan delivers as Pa Danby, bewildered by Jason’s smarts and ashamed of his dumb kids. He’s never been funnier. Classic character actor Jack Elam has his best film role as Jake, Jason’s new deputy who’s a pretty good shot, up for a fight and more than a little power hungry.
Garner has to be one of the coolest dudes to ever hit the big screen. He’s so reserved and unruffled in the middle of the madness that you can’t wipe the smile off your face.
A family film that’s funny for all ages, this is truly the type of film they don’t make any more.
The AFI nominated the film as one of the Top 100 Funniest American Movies back in 2000 and the past two decades have only ripened the laughs.
It was followed two years later by Support Your Local Gunfighter, with most of the same case playing similar but different characters. After enjoying every minute of this one, I’ll be watching that one soon!
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! Shoots, barroom fights and duels its way to a perfect A.
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