Review of Support Your Local Gunfighter

Introduction

The second and better-known of James Garner`s comedy westerns, this 1971 sequel took an almost identical plot to the first movie and came up with something even more gleefully subversive. Burt Kennedy directs for a second time, with a screenplay from James Edward Grant.

This time Garner plays amiable confidence trickster Latigo Smith, who is mistaken for legendary gunslinger Swifty Morgan by the good people of the mining town of Purgatory. Arriving on the train with something to get off his chest, Latigo takes advantage of the case of mistaken identity to set himself up. Befriending town character Jug May (the wonderful Jack Elam again), Latigo reverses his temporary bad fortune by charming saloon owner Jenny (Joan Blondell) into temporarily supporting him.

Suzanne Pleshette plays Patience, not the game but the hellcat daughter of mine owner Taylor Barton (Henry Morgan) who sets her sights on Latigo. Colonel Ames (John Dehner) owns the other mine in town and it is he who has hired Swifty Morgan (Chuck Connors) to further stamp his authority on the town. Matters are further complicated by the fact Ames` elderly spinster sister (the Waltons` Ellen Corby) and Taylor Barton are an item.

Taking Morgan`s name in vain proves an unhealthy thing to do as the man himself comes to town intending to make large holes in the impostor.

Veteran western actor Dub Taylor turns in an amiable performance as the horse doctor Latigo goes to with his chest problem, and Henry Jones plays the stationmaster and telegraph operator Ez.

Video

Like the original movie (Sheriff), Gunfighter is presented in the theatrical format 1.85:1. However, the image of this movie is distinctly more grainy and not as sharp as the earlier film. Edge enhancement is more noticeable, and a lot of shots have a digital-zoomed-in air about them. It`s not as if the movie is highly compressed. At 98 minutes, it doesn`t fill the DVD-5 it comes on and the bit rate is a healthy 8.80Mbps, so why is the image lacking in detail? The disc appears to carry pan-and-scan flags, cropping the image to 4:3 for fullscreeners.

Similarly to the first movie there is a made-for-television air about the whole exercise, and I think I`ve put my finger on what has subliminally given me that impression. The titles. They`re by Pacific Title, in that bright yellow style that they used to title everything from Columbo to Alias Smith And Jones in for Universal during the 1970s.

Audio

Like the first movie, made in plain Mono and reproduced here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono.

Features

With the exception of subtitles (and a choice of multilingual ones), absolutely nothing.

Conclusion

The two Support Your Local... movies are pricelessly witty spoofs of the whole western genre that do so without attacking their target. Modern spoofers should run these pictures to see how you can spoof something without resorting to bodily functions or profanity to get laughs.

Of the two, Gunfighter is the real treat, from the slick getaway from the arms of his saloon owner bride-to-be Goldie to the explosive climax, James Garner amps up the character he first brought to the small screen in Maverick. He still manages to get any scene he`s in with Jack Elam stolen out from under him. Love it.