Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

Garner plays Jason McCullough, an easy-going, self-assured drifter who wanders into a rough-and-tumble frontier town looking to make a little extra money on his way to Australia, and winds up taking on the unenviable job of sheriff. Of course there’s a bullying clan of ranchers (headed by My Darling Clementine’s Walter Brennan, who’s hilarious) to contend with; other challenges include rowdy cowboys, an unfinished jail building that lacks bars in the windows and cell openings — and the mayor’s beautiful, spirited but mishap-prone daughter Prudy (very funny Joan Hackett).

Though McCullough prefers, like Jimmy Stewart in Destry, to use his brains instead of his fists, he’s not averse to using force when necessary. He’s never at a loss, and his methods are as clever as they are unorthodox. True to the genre, he cleans up the town — right down to a climactic sight gag with an explosive impact (if an inadvertent one) on operations at the local house of ill repute.

Product Notes

On DVD the film is packaged with Support Your Local Gunfighter, an in-spirit-only sequel with the same director and much of the same cast. Unfortunately, Gunfighter is neither as funny nor as family-friendly as the original film.