Support Your Local Gunfighter

The wild west just got wilder and a whole lot wackier! James Garner is back in the saddle again in Support Your Local Gunfighter, a powder keg of laughs in which the most dangerous gunslinger in the west isn't the fastest but the funniest! Gigolo con man Latigo Smith (Garner) needs to get something off his chestthe tattooed name of his most recent ex-fiancÃ(c)e. But while he's waiting for the local doctor to sober up and perform the operation, Smith overhears that local mining baron Taylor Barton (Harry Morgan) is looking to shut down his mining competition by hiring the notorious gunman, Swifty Morgan. Seizing the opportunity for an easy con, Smith passes off a reprobate cowhand (Jack Elam) as the dreaded Swifty and pockets the cash. Bankroll in hand, he plans to head for the hills until he falls for Barton's pistol-packin' daughter, Patience (Suzanne Pleshette). But when the real Swifty shows up looking for blood, Smith comes up with an outrageous scheme to save his hide, stop the mining feud and win over Patience and it might just work if it doesn't blow up the entire town! James Garner returns for this pseudosequel to Support Your Local Sheriff, this time as a gigolo con man mistaken for a legendary killer. Escaping matrimonial entanglements, he lands in the town of Purgatory in the midst of a raging war between gold miners racing for the mother lode. In a play right out of Maverick, he quickly casts drifter Jack Elam into the gunfighter role and names himself the man's agent, selling his services to the highest bidder and pocketing a sizable commission. Garner double-talks his way through one deal after another with a wink and a smile while Elam growls and swaggers and rolls his eyes, playacting the role of the cold-blooded gunslinger like a wild-eyed clown. Suzanne Pleshette shoots up the town as Garner's romantic interest, a tomboy in buckskin with an itchy trigger finger and lousy aim, and Chuck Conners walks tall as the real bald-as-a-billiard-ball killer. Apart from the tongue-in-cheek tone and returning cast members (Elam, Harry Morgan, Henry Jones, and Gene Evans are among the familiar faces joining Garner), the film has little in common with Sheriff and never quite recaptures the clever twists and low-key hilarity, but this is a cast who knows how to deliver a gag, and Kennedy's laid-back direction keeps an even, affectionately spoofing tone throughout. --Sean Axmaker