''Support Your Local Sheriff!'', also known as ''The Sheriff'', is a 1969 American

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Burt Kennedy Burton Raphael Kennedy (September 3, 1922 – February 15, 2001) was an American screenwriter and film director, director known mainly for directing Westerns. Budd Boetticher called him "the best Western writer ever." Biography Kennedy was b ...

and starring James Garner, Joan Hackett, and

Walter Brennan Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Come and Get It (1936 film), Come and Get It'' (1936), ''Kentucky (film), Kentucky'' (19 ...

. The supporting cast features Harry Morgan,

Jack Elam William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 – October 20, 2003) was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villaino ...

, Bruce Dern, and

Chubby Johnson Charles Randolph "Chubby" Johnson (August 13, 1903 – October 31, 1974) was an American film and television supporting character actor with a genial demeanor and warm, country-accented voice. Early years Johnson was the son of entertaine ...

. The picture was distributed by

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

and produced by

William Bowers William Bowers (January 17, 1916 – March 27, 1987) was an American reporter, playwright, and screenwriter. He worked as a reporter in Long Beach, California and for ''Life Magazine, Life'' magazine, and specialized in writing Comedy Western, ...

(who also wrote the screenplay) and Bill Finnegan. The film is a parody of a common Western trope: the selfless, rugged stranger who tames a lawless frontier town. Its title was derived from the popular 1960s campaign slogan "Support Your Local Police".

Plot

The Old West town of Calendar in the

Colorado Territory The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the 38th State of Colorado. The territory was organized ...

springs up almost overnight when clumsy, hotheaded Prudy Perkins notices gold in a freshly dug grave during a funeral. Her father, bumbling farmer Olly, becomes the first mayor of the new settlement, but soon he and the other elected councilmen find themselves and the townspeople at the mercy of the corrupt Danby family, who force the prospectors to pay them a toll for using the only road in or out of Calendar. The town has no

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

, as all the men are busy searching for gold, and the few who have taken the job have been run out of town or killed. Jason McCullough, a confident and exceptionally skilled

gunfighter Gunfighters, also called gunslingers () or in the late 19th and early 20th century gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in shootouts. Today, the term "gunslin ...

planning to emigrate to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, sees Joe Danby kill a man over a card game in the town's saloon. Needing money after Calendar's high prices leave him broke, McCullough takes the job of sheriff, impressing the mayor and council with his uncanny marksmanship. He breaks up a street brawl and becomes attracted to Prudy, despite her attempts to avoid him due to the embarrassing circumstances under which they first met. McCullough arrests Joe and tosses him in the town's unfinished jail, which lacks bars for the cell doors and windows; he uses several clever tricks to manipulate Joe and keep him from escaping. McCullough acquires a reluctant deputy in scruffy stable boy Jake, previously known as the " town character". Joe's arrest infuriates his father, Pa Danby, who is not accustomed to his family being challenged. After McCullough disarms and humiliates him in a failed intimidation attempt, Pa sends in a string of hired guns to kill him, all of whom the sheriff easily defeats. Meanwhile, McCullough enlists Jake's help in an unsuccessful attempt to prospect for gold, and spars romantically with Prudy. The Danbys try to tear the bars off the jail window with their horses but get pulled off their mounts instead before Jake chases them away with a shotgun. A fed-up Pa enlists all of his relatives to ride into town and free his son. When the news reaches McCullough, he initially tells Prudy he intends to leave, but when she expresses her sincere approval of this sensible idea, he declares it to be cowardly and announces he is staying instead. Mayor Perkins persuades the townsfolk to vote against helping the sheriff despite Prudy trying to convince them otherwise. Thus, the Danby clan rides in faced only by McCullough, Jake, and Prudy. After a lengthy but unproductive gunfight, McCullough bluffs his way to victory using Joe as a hostage and the old

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

mounted in the center of town. As the Danbys are marched off to jail, the supposedly unloaded cannon fires, smashing the local

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

and scattering both the prostitutes and the councilmen they were servicing. McCullough and Prudy get engaged. In a closing

monologue In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...

, Jake breaks the film's

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

and directly informs the audience that after his wedding, McCollough went on to a long and prosperous career as the first governor of Colorado after it became a state, never making it to Australia (although he reads about it a lot), while Jake takes his place as sheriff of Calendar and becomes "one of the most beloved characters in Western folklore".

Cast

* James Garner as Jason McCullough * Joan Hackett as Prudy Perkins *

as Pa Danby * Harry Morgan as Olly Perkins *

as Jake * Henry Jones as Henry Jackson * Bruce Dern as Joe Danby * Willis Bouchey as Thomas Devery * Kathleen Freeman as Mrs. Danvers * Walter Burke as Fred Johnson *

as Brady * Gene Evans as Tom Danby * Dick Peabody as Luke Danby * Dick Haynes as Bartender

Production

''Support Your Local Sheriff!'' was the first producing effort by Garner and his Cherokee production company, completed on a "shoestring" budget of $750,000. Early in pre-production,

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

threatened a lawsuit because the studio contended that the first scene was "lifted" from their musical '' Paint Your Wagon'' (1969) where a similar gold mine discovery is featured. Eventually, Garner was able to show where the original screenplay had found its source material, and the lawsuit went away.Nixon, Rob
"Articles" ''Support Your Local Sheriff!''
''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: November 17, 2022

Reception

''Support Your Local Sheriff'' was considered a "bomb." It did not do any business in its first week, with United Artists clamoring to pull the film. Garner challenged them to match a $10,000 stake to keep the film in one theatre for a week. The result was impressive as "word of mouth" increased attendance until crowds were around the theatre by the end of the engagement. ''Support Your Local Sheriff'' was the 20th-most popular film at the U.S. box office in 1969. ''Support Your Local Sheriff'' received mixed-to-positive critical reviews. It holds a 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on sixteen reviews.

Follow-up

In 1971, director Burt Kennedy reteamed with James Garner, Harry Morgan, and Jack Elam to make another Western comedy, '' Support Your Local Gunfighter'', with different characters but a similar comedic tone. Many of the original supporting cast reappeared as well.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

* * *
James Garner Interview on the ''Charlie Rose Show''
{{Burt Kennedy 1969 films 1960s Western (genre) comedy films American Western (genre) comedy films American parody films 1960s parody films Films directed by Burt Kennedy Films shot in Los Angeles Films set in Colorado 1969 comedy films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language Western (genre) comedy films