Overrated and overhyped

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Copyright 1958 by Daniel M. Angel Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox. New York opening at the Paramount: 13 March 1959. U.S. release: January 1959. U.K. release: 21 December 1958. Australian release: 30 April 1959. Sydney opening at the Embassy. 9,900 feet. 110 minutes. (Cut to 102 minutes in Australia and the USA).SYNOPSIS: In the mid-19th century, the English gunsmith house of Tibbs is in a state of near-bankruptcy. Consequently, Jonathan Tibbs decides to save the family business by journeying to that part of the world where guns are most popular — the American West. Armed with samples and confidence, he arrives in the lawless town of Fractured Jaw, checks in at Kate's Hotel and Saloon, and confounds one and all with his impeccable attire and speech, his tea-drinking habit, and his incredibly fast draw.NOTES: Number 7 of the ten top attractions at the U.K. box-office for 1959.Although credited only for her rendition of the title tune, Connie Francis looped Miss Mansfield's songs as well.COMMENT: Heavy-handed but mildly funny western spoof, this variant of "Ruggles of Red Gap" and/or "Fancy Pants" received mixed reviews from the line-up of professional critics. I felt the movie offers little that's fresh or new, but (at least in its American version) it moves at a reasonable clip and is nothing if not enthusiastically enacted — especially by the colorfully costumed Jayne Mansfield.OTHER VIEWS: Scarcely anything has been added to the old, old tune, and the few variations attempted show little inventiveness and quite a lot of dawdling. The result is that most of the humor is forced and the effect is pretty much that of a man laughing at his own joke. — Paul V. Beckley in the New York Herald Tribune.Not to be missed... Who ever greenlighted the starring combo of Jayne Mansfield and Kenneth More has done themselves and filmgoers a good turn. These two effervescent personalities merge like bacon and eggs, and the result is a wave of yocks... Walsh has directed this cheerful skit about the wild, woolly west with vigor and pace... Miss Mansfield gives More hearty support, looks attractive in a big, bosomy way and sings two or three numbers very well. — Variety.

A comedy that takes a cultured, well-bred Englishman and plops him down in the middle of the American "Wild West" wasn't new when this film was made ("Ruggles of Red Gap" did it in 1918 and was remade at least twice) but this isn't a prime example of the premise. Although he's a bit too old for the part, Kenneth More does a good job as a gun salesman for a British firearms company owned by his family who is sent to the West to sell his family's products and the Spanish scenery fits in quite well for the American west. Veteran character actor Henry Hull gleefully chews the scenery as the crotchety, scheming mayor who finagles More into taking the job of sheriff of the tough, wild town of Fractured Jaw, which is plagued by a feud between the forces of two local ranchers and troubles with local Indians, with Bruce Cabot playing the head of one of the warring factions. On the downside, the rest of the supporting cast is weak and much of the humor falls flat.However, the film's biggest negative is Jayne Mansfield, playing a tough saloon singer who falls for More. She's just, to put it charitably, awful. She can't act to save her life, but her acting wasn't the reason she was hired for this--or any other--picture. She had done comedies before ("Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter", "The Girl Can't Help It") so she had some idea of how to deliver lines, but you sure couldn't tell by her performance in this film. She's inept to the point of embarrassment. Her chest was her single biggest talent (or talents, depending on your point of view) and even that's not enough to carry a picture. She and More have no chemistry whatsoever, and even though More gives it "the old college try", there's just nothing there.Her incompetence ruins what potential the picture had, but given the script's limitations and usually reliable director Raoul Walsh's heavy-handed direction, it really didn't have a whole lot of potential to begin with. I don't know if it was a hit or not--it may have been in England, but I can't see how American audiences would have taken to it. Western comedies don't have a particular good success record overall--"Blazing Saddles" notwithstanding--and this picture is a good example of why. There are, at most, three reasons to watch this film, Kenneth More's amusing performance being one of them, but otherwise, forget it.

In the first place, the cliché of the "fish out of water" might be over-used now, but it was hardly over-used in 1958. There are echoes of Bob Hope's Paleface and Son of Paleface, but those were ten years earlier.Secondly, just because a movie might have had some scenes filmed in Spain does not make it a Spaghetti Western. Spaghetti Westerns are westerns produced by Italians and directed by Italians. That's where the name "spaghetti" comes from, see? The Western is not my favorite genre, but I enjoy Kenneth Moore. Jayne Mansfield does an adequate job. My favorite is of course poor William Campbell as Keno.

Kenneth More, the British Comedian stars in his first Hollywood movie with Jayne Maynesfield, the blonde bombshell in this spoof of westerns where a man who would rather drink tea than pick a gun tames the west. The film is well-directed by the veteran Michael Curtiz, is mildly amusing to extremely funny in parts. Jayne sings some songs, especially a catchy one with echoes. What else to say, good fluff.