A masterpiece. "Destry Rides Again" may be considered a 'comedy-western'
and it's certainly the greatest in that particular genre, but it's also
one of the ten best westerns ever made, with a serious streak running
through it in tandem with the comedy and it has perhaps the greatest
cast ever assembled for a western. James Stewart is the mild-mannered
deputy, Destry, who cleans up the town of Bottleneck by very unorthodox
means and Marlene Dietrich is the saloon singer who falls for him. It's
unlikely that either player has ever been more likeable on screen and the
superb supporting cast includes Brian Donlevy, (the baddie), Charles
Winninger, (the town drunk who becomes sheriff), Mischa Auer, (the
Cossack cowboy), Una Merkel, (she and Dietrich have the mother of all
cat-fights), Billy Gilbert, (the bartender) and Samuel S HInds, (the
duplicitous mayor). Add to that the biggest and rowdiest saloon of any
western, some great Frederick Hollander/Frank Loesser songs and a
classic climatic gunfight and you have a movie as good as any that came
out of Hollywood in 1939, a year that many consider the greatest in
Hollywood history. In their own respective ways both "Rio Bravo" and"Blazing Saddles" have paid it homage.
A masterpiece. "Destry Rides Again" may be considered a 'comedy-western'
and it's certainly the greatest in that particular genre, but it's also
one of the ten best westerns ever made, with a serious streak running
through it in tandem with the comedy and it has perhaps the greatest
cast ever assembled for a western. James Stewart is the mild-mannered
deputy, Destry, who cleans up the town of Bottleneck by very unorthodox
means and Marlene Dietrich is the saloon singer who falls for him. It's
unlikely that either player has ever been more likeable on screen and the
superb supporting cast includes Brian Donlevy, (the baddie), Charles
Winninger, (the town drunk who becomes sheriff), Mischa Auer, (the
Cossack cowboy), Una Merkel, (she and Dietrich have the mother of all
cat-fights), Billy Gilbert, (the bartender) and Samuel S HInds, (the
duplicitous mayor). Add to that the biggest and rowdiest saloon of any
western, some great Frederick Hollander/Frank Loesser songs and a
classic climatic gunfight and you have a movie as good as any that came
out of Hollywood in 1939, a year that many consider the greatest in
Hollywood history. In their own respective ways both "Rio Bravo" and"Blazing Saddles" have paid it homage.
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