the audience applauded

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Released in 1969 and directed by Burt Kennedy, "Support Your Local Sheriff" is a decent, if unspectacular, Western comedy with likable James Garner as a traveler passing through a gold-rush town in the Southwest and taking the job of sheriff, despite the fact that the last three sheriffs were quickly murdered on duty. Jack Elam plays his deputy, Harry Morgan the mayor and Joan Hackett his daughter. Walter Brenan and Bruce Dern are on hand as local ne'er-do-wells. There are several other recognizable people in the cast. The movie's likable and amusing in a low-key way. 'Nuff said.The film runs 92 minutes and was shot at Iverson Ranch, Los Angeles, California.GRADE: B- (6/10 Stars)

Jason McCullough (James Garner) is just passing through town on his way to Australia (!). Needing money, he takes the job of sheriff and quickly finds himself at odds with the criminal Danby family. Very funny western comedy. It sends up the western genre gently without being condescending or insulting like so many western comedies are. James Garner is terrific as the level-headed sheriff, as quick with his wits as with a gun. Great character actor Jack Elam is lots of fun as his sidekick. Bruce Dern is hilarious as the dim-witted Joe Danby. Walter Brennan plays the patriarch of the Danby clan. One would assume this is a send-up of his role in My Darling Clementine. He's very funny as well. Harry Morgan is solid as always. Joan Hackett as the hotheaded Prudy nearly steals the show. I say nearly because Garner's flawless performance can't be beat. It's really a superb cast in a must-see film.

OK, so this movie ain't no "Blazing Saddles" but it also isn't trying to be. And how could they? Since "Blazing Saddles" got made 5 years after this movie. But yet of course every western comedy is going to be compared to "Blazing Saddles", simply because it's THE ultimate western comedy of all time. This movie however is good as a comedy western in its totally different, own kind of way. It has a more subtle comedy approach, even though it's still being filled with plenty of silly moments in it.It actually is a very simplistic movie. It has such a simplistic and predictable story in it, as if they didn't even tried to come up with a good, original story. But none of this matters really, since it's a movie that is all about its fun. It's such an entertaining and lighthearted movie to watch, that you're totally willing to forgive any of the movie its weaknesses and inconsistencies.It's also all because it's such a skillfully made movie. Despite it being a comedy, lots of money and effort was put into it, so that the movie looks and feels like an actual western from the late '60's/'70's.Also the acting is real topnotch. James Garner of course already had lots of western and comedy experience, prior to this movie, so he is obviously very at ease within this movie and feels comfortable and confident in his role, as new town sheriff, who has to deal with a not too bright outlaw family. Also the still very young looking Bruce Dern plays in the movie, in a good but foremost fun role, as does Walter Brennan, who is perhaps one of the most iconic western actors, from the earlier days of the genre. Lots of great and well known western actors appear in this movie, though most of them probably won't be recognized by anybody now days.Even though the movie doesn't has a too impressive story, most of its comedy still comes from its writing. There are lots of word jokes in the movie and lots of sexual innuendo hidden throughout, which works out all wonderfully, mostly also because all of the actors deliver their lines with a very straight face.Simply a joy to watch!8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Support Your Local Sheriff! is directed by Burt Kennedy and written by William Bowers. It stars James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Harry Morgan and Bruce Dern. Harry Stradling Jr. is the cinematographer and Jeff Alexander scores the music. The film is essentially a parody of a Western splinter that encompasses an iconoclastic new arrival in a troubled town who sets about taming it. Here it's James Garner as Jason McCullough who is on his way to Australia to make his fortune. Stopping over in an Old Western town for some rest, a bite to eat, and maybe earn some cash? McCullough is disgusted to find corruption and murder is rife. Showing a firm backbone and some nifty skills with a gun, McCullough highly impresses the town dignitaries who offer him the position of Sheriff. A job he finally accepts and begins taming the town with his unconventional methods.Support Your Local Sheriff! Very much had time on its side when it was released. Interest in the Western as a genre had waned considerably, with the advent of free television potentially ready to drive the final nails into the coffin. Four years earlier Cat Ballou had shown that a comedy Western in the 60s could be well received. While master craftsman Howard Hawks had parodied his own Rio Bravo a year after Cat Ballou with the well regarded El Dorado. Throw into the pot that James Garner had good comedic Western credentials behind him on account of his run in TV series Maverick (1957-1962); and it's evident that Messrs Kennedy & Bowers knew exactly what they were doing.Roger Ebert famously accused the makers of the film of being thieves, not buying into the parody basis, he hated the film and thought it just stole from other Western movies whilst being made in a TV show style. Well that's kind of the core of a parody movie is it not? Bowers & Kennedy have crafted a top dollar irreverent Oater, embracing the clichés of many standard genre pics that had gone before it-and then turning them upside down. While all the time, with this cast of very knowing genre participants, cloaking the picture with love and affection. It's not so much biting the hand that feeds you, but more a tasteful appreciation of what was sometimes fed.Full of truly memorable scenes such as a jail without bars, the film is immeasurably helped by the on fire cast. Garner deadpans it a treat and is charismatic into the bargain. As he goes about taming the town more by logic and suggestion than rapid gunfire, he's a hero that's very easy to warm too. Hackett, who owes the Western fan nothing after Will Penny, is simply adorable as a bumbling rich girl quickly getting the hots for the new Sheriff. Morgan & Dern play it firmly with a glint in the eye and tongue in cheek, and Brennan, a god-like bastion of Western's, is hilarious as the patriarch of the bullying Danby clan. But best of the bunch is Jack Elam (The Far Country/ Vera Cruz/ Gunfight at the OK Corral), who playing the town character somehow finds himself (in spite of himself) employed as the Sheriff's deputy, turns in a lesson in visual and physical comedy. Fittingly it's Elam who closes the film out with a suitably knowing piece of smart.It lacks some great scenic photography and the score is a bit too much Keystone Coppery, but really this is about the excellent script and the players bringing it to life. A Western comedy gem. 9/10