124. Destry Rides Again (1939)

Directed By George Marshall

Synopsis

Sheriff of small town gets murdered, town drunk gets elected to sheriff and sends for son of legendary sheriff Destry to assist him as deputy. Son of Destry is a bit os a soft-touch, until he gets pissed off. Marlene Dietrich fits in there somehow as well.


Review

No westerns for the longest time and now we get another one, good. This is a strange film, it is a comedy western, but also a tragic one, some of the most beloved characters get killed but it is still a funny film, Jimmy Stewart plays a bit of the same character that he does in most of his other films of this era, the naive man stuck in a place he has no experience with, but he does it great.

I can't tell you enough how much I love Jimmy Stewart, and Marlene as well, the fact that the film has the both of them is enough to make it worth watching. Unfortunately Marlene isn't quite as fantastic here as in Shanghai Express or Blue Angel, but she is always a presence on screen. She is actually playing pretty much the same role as Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, which is unfortunate because it is hard to beat Mae West for sheer wit.

That said, the film is a good film, but not a spectacular one unfortunately. 1939 is turning out to be a pretty exceptional year however and there is still plenty more to come, so hold on to your hats folks. Get the film from Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


* The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

* Universal Pictures released an earlier version, also titled Destry Rides Again (1932), directed by Benjamin Stoloff.

* The 1939 version became famous for the "catfight" between Dietrich and veteran actress Una Merkel.

* A western with a very similar plot and similar comic effects is Michael Curtiz's Dodge City.

* A Broadway musical version of the story, Destry Rides Again, opened in New York at the Imperial Theater on April 23, 1959, and played 472 performances. Produced by David Merrick, the show had a book by Leonard Gershe and music and lyrics by Harold Rome and starred Andy Griffith as Destry and Dolores Gray as Frenchy.

* A remake, Destry (1954), was directed by George Marshall and starred Audie Murphy and Thomas Mitchell.

Some band plays one of the musical acts of the film, Boys In The Backroom: