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Jason McCullough (James Garner) is just passing through town on his way to Australia (!). Needing money, he takes the job of sheriff and quickly finds himself at odds with the criminal Danby family. Very funny western comedy. It sends up the western genre gently without being condescending or insulting like so many western comedies are. James Garner is terrific as the level-headed sheriff, as quick with his wits as with a gun. Great character actor Jack Elam is lots of fun as his sidekick. Bruce Dern is hilarious as the dim-witted Joe Danby. Walter Brennan plays the patriarch of the Danby clan. One would assume this is a send-up of his role in My Darling Clementine. He's very funny as well. Harry Morgan is solid as always. Joan Hackett as the hotheaded Prudy nearly steals the show. I say nearly because Garner's flawless performance can't be beat. It's really a superb cast in a must-see film.

I love it when Sheriff Garner casually sticks his finger into bad guy Brennan's gun barrel. What a great way to disarm a menace. I don't know if his trick would really work, but who cares since it's good for a laugh. In fact, such imaginative goofiness could stand for the movie as a whole. Like when Garner chases a gunslinger out of town with a barrage of rocks. His aim may not be so good, but a thousand clichéd fast-draws flashed before me while I laughed. And it's not just Garner-- it's the whole superbly droll cast. Old pro's like Henry Morgan, Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, and even the newcomer Joan Hackett, a fine actress who shoots much too well, but in real life, died much too young. All the nonsense adds up to one really droll take-off on a thousand Western clichés, without rubbing your nose in it. It's also a tribute to the much under-rated helmsman Burt Kennedy and writer William Bowers who comes up with the great line about "disturbing the peace" as the three half-dressed councilmen escape the exploding bordello. Then too, looks like Garner's Cherokee Productions financed the project, proving that the savvy actor knows quality when he sees it. From start to finish— a real little gem.

The casual tone of James Garner..and Jack Elam's kinda ditzy way of worrying made it worth watching for me...but then to put Bruce Dern as an not too bright gunman and Walter Brennan as his exasperated father makes me watch it over and over for the little simple and yet careful undertones....liked it alot...3 1/2 stars here...

This is a great film to have in your collection and to pull out when you have guests with varied tastes. Fantastic screenplay, staging, pacing and, most of all, incredible acting, all come together to make this a nearly perfect film. Someone says, "I don't like Westerns," you tell them this is a western "spoof" and really more of a brain-over-brawn and romance than a western in the classical sense. Another says, "I'm getting tired of romantic-comedies," you tell them that it's not the main storyline, and the romance is just another part of the spoof. There are some well-staged and funny action scenes and lots of witty dialogue. Whatever a person likes, it is in here; and whatever a person may not like, there is not so much of it in here to dominate the movie, and so much else to enjoy. Get this one in your video library as soon as possible...

This is a classic example of a genre parody. It's not one of those jokes-coming-at-100mph kind of spoofs (such as Blazing Saddles), it simply plays everything by genre rules. It shares this with the 1939 version of Destry Rides Again, but it goes much further in exhibiting the hilarious potential of the genre by just slightly exaggerating the kind of improbable situations classic Westerns so often throw at us.

To appreciate this film properly you need to be familiar with the classic Western genre, mostly to understand how the genre works when played straight but you may also recognise some movie references.

The cast is absolutely marvellous, James Garner is a commanding lead, Jack Elam has never been better, and there are first-rate character actors for all the supporting roles. Especially Harry Morgan and Walter Brennan are excellent in roles very similar to ones they played straight in High Noon and My Darling Clementine, respectively.