Dirty Dingus Magee

This is a sort of live-action equivalent of the famous cartoon series. Fun Western parody in which satire goes on and on the same comical premise. The bandit Dingus Mgee (Frank Sinatra) arrives in the town of Yerkey's Hole, where a series of disorder and altercations break out. There he meets an old friend (George Kennedy) with whom he begins a prolonged confrontation to keep a loot. In the town of Yerkey's Hole, Belle Knops (Anne Jackson) is both Mayor and bordello-madam. She appoints Hoke town Sheriff and tries to get him to stir up the Indians so the soldiers at the nearby fort won't go to Little Big Horn, that why the troopers ae the main clients of her prostitutes. Along the way Dingus keeps attempting to save his Indian girlfriend (Michele Carey) and keeps rescuing her . Sinatra plays cowboys and indians for adults! It's kind of a western. He's sort of a cowboy !. It is the fastest fun in the west!

Diverting Western satire in which there are several nutty characters and improbable happenings. This wacky spoof is packed with mayhem, lots of silly laughters and great entertainment and fun . Most of the laughs and sight gags galore work acceptably well ; humor is also bold and intelligent with a myriad of imaginative but well-known sketches . Demystified as well as amiable Western was one of a group of diverse characters changed the concept of this particular genre each bent on disproving a popular myth , yet tinged with humor , spoof and combining with anti-heroes , crazy Indians and anything else. The film is a send-up of "the Code of the West" with a lot of and exaggerated events, embarrasment and ridiculousness. A funny spoof of B Western that is almost live-action Roadrunner/Coyote and his disaster-prone cartoon, a similar experiment was subsequently made by Hal Needham in Cactus Jack (1979) . Here Sinatra plays the inept highwayman Dirty Dingus Magee who faces off his old enemy Hoke Birdsill taking turns at being either lawman or outlaw and being rivals or partners in crime, depending of the circumstances. But incompetent Hoke/George Kennedy mugs his way through a routine series of flops and he repeatedly fails to to get the loot. This comic Western is a kind of live-action similar to Roadrunner and Coyote. This is an enjoyable film but repetitive and director Burt Kennedy, apparently lost in the continuous gags , resorts to hackeyed camera trickery , including a truly silly denouement. The picture is fun enough and agreeable in parts and it has its moments here and there . The great duo of likeable protagonists: Frank Sinatra, George Kennedy are complemented by a nice support cast, such as : Anne Jackson, Lois Nettleton, Michele Carey, John Dehner, Henry Jones, Harry Carey Jr, Paul Fix and Jack Elam steal the show as the alleged criminal, murderer, shooter John Wesley Hardin, a real gunman who murdered a number of victims. The twisted screenplay besides having more than its fair scraps of funny lines ,throws up sympathetic roles. The formula deals to enhance the comic observations of the western originated on the decade 60 , being continued by the following filmmakers : Andrew McLagen and Burt Kennedy with ¨Support your local gunfighter (one of his better spoof Western)¨ , ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (his highpoint) , ¨Dirty Dingus Mcgee¨ and director Michael Gordon with ¨Texas across the river¨ ; a bit later on , Mel Brooks directed the indispensable ¨Blazing saddles¨, a surrealist , extreme and gross-out spoof with the ordinary bunch of loonies and loopies .

This amusing and hilarious Western was regular y professionally directed by Burt Kennedy. He initially was screenwriter , his initial effort, ¨Seven men from now¨ (1956), was a superb western, the first of the esteemed collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott. Kennedy wrote most of that series, as well as a number of others for Batjac, although it would be nearly 20 years before Wayne actually appeared in the film of a Kennedy script. In 1960 Kennedy got his first work as a filmmaker on a western, ¨The Canadians¨ (1961), but it was a critical failure . He turned to television where he wrote and directed episodes of "Lawman" (1958), "The Virginian " (1962) and most notably ¨Combat!"(1962). Directing ¨Support you local sheriff¨, ¨Support your local gunfighter¨ ¨War Wagon¨ and ¨ The Good guys and bad guys¨ that resulted to be four of his best Westerns . He returned to films in 1965 with the successful ¨The Canadians¨ (1965), later producing and directing the pilot for the TV series of the same name. The film will appeal to absurd, unruly , wacky Western comedy fans . This raucous Western spoof is a Frank Sinatra/George Kennedy vehicle , if you like their particular performances ,you'll enjoy this one .

A silly movie, but not as bad as some say it is. If you are in the mood for something silly this fits the bill. George Kennedy was not really known for comedy but he pulls it off quite well here just as he did in the Naked Gun movies. A comment in another review on this site written by ed-shullivan in June of 2016 mentions that Frank Sinatra is too old for Michele Carey. I agree with that. Sinatra was 28 years older than Michele. However it was also mentioned that George Kennedy is far too old for Lois Nettleton. Actually George Kennedy was only two years older than Lois Nettleton. George was born in 1925 and Lois was born in 1927. Lois had one of the funniest parts in DDM as a nymphomaniac school teacher. She came on to every man she met!

In 1965 David Markson wrote the novel 'The Ballad of Dingus Magee' in which the hero is a scrawny teenager. Fast forward to 1970 and we have a far from scrawny, 55 year old Frank Sinatra in the title role! Mr. Sinatra is indisputably one of the greatest interpreters of popular song ever to step up to a microphone and represents a Golden Age of entertainment that is alas gone forever. His films are a mixed bunch to say the least but with a strong director and the right material he has given some fine performances. Hollywood is an unforgiving place however, in which memories are short. His last commercial and critical success had been 'Von Ryan's Express' in 1965 and in the world of film, five years is far too long. Although he remained both popular and active as an entertainer this dreadful opus of Burt Kennedy effectively scuppered his film career.

Such infantile, puerile nonsense is almost too painful to behold and the spectacle of a middle-aged Sinatra in red long johns cavorting with the somewhat younger, mini-skirted squaw of luscious Michele Carey is exceedingly absurd. The supporting cast does its best in the circumstances and the standout performance is that of Lois Nettleton as Prudence("Prude for short but not for long")

It looks as if the cast had great fun in making this but the end result is an acute embarassment to all concerned and should be filed under 'T' for 'Turkey'.

Burt Kennedy who gave us so many good westerns spoofs comes up a wee bit short of good with Dirty Dingus Magee. Not that it doesn't have a few funny moments, but the cast just doesn't quite get with the spirit of the things the way they did in such films as The Rounders and Support Your Local Sheriff.

For one thing Frank Sinatra looks like he's waiting for Dino and Sammy to come on the scene. Old Blue Eyes in the meanwhile is just going through the motions of a performance. Which consists of him acting just like a human version of the Road Runner.

Wile E. Coyote in this case is George Kennedy who never played such a goofy role on screen before or since. Sinatra spends the entire 91 minutes of Dirty Dingus Magee consistently making a fool out of poor Kennedy.

Best performances in the film belong to the women, to Anne Jackson for one of the brassiest bordello madams ever done on screen and to Lois Nettleton as the nymphomaniac school teacher, Prudence Frost. Yes, the name is part of the gag.

But when that gag becomes the best one in the film, you've got a problem.

If you like goofy Westerns that you don't have to put a lot of thought into, then this is the movie for you. Frank Sinatra plays Dirty Dingus and George Kennedy plays the Sheriff on old blue eyes trail. This is a fun and lighthearted Western comedy that nobody takes seriously including the production staff and the director. There are many scenes full of goofs they just send you roaring. There is also plenty of eye candy with Michele Carey playing the part of the Indian girl who wants Dingus all to herself. If you like lighthearted comedy Westerns such as 'Texas across the river" or "Sergeants 3" then you will love this movie. Pull out the popcorn and sit back to watch Franck Sinatra looking like Moe of the Three Stooges playing cowboy and Indians in Dirty Dingus Magee.