thomas4cinema

The Sheriff (John Wayne) has made a catch – local crook Burdette got arrested after killing a bystander. His brother alerts the gang, and a stand-off begins. The prisoner cannot be brought out of town, and the Marshall will only be coming in a couple of days. Sheriff and deputies Stumpy and Dude (Dean Martin) team up with pretty love interest Feathers to get through the days.
An interesting melange of hard-ass cliché Western and romantic musical. Not too much music, but there are two or three scenes when Dean martin is allowed to bring the action to a halt, sit in a rocking chair or a bathtub and give us a very mellow tune. But most of the time, the expected shoot-outs, plots and traps happen. The showdown involving a surprise hero Stumpy and a lot of dynamite seems a bit short cut, as if they were running out of film stock and needed to rush off the final scenes. A much lighter bit of entertainment than “The Searchers” that I watched a day earlier, but with prototypical characters that are worth liking. It is no surprise that John Wayne’s presence is solid, but especially Dean Martin surprised me with subtle acting and a very cool screen presence.