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When analyzing character actors, a couple comes to mind. Now, it is possible to name a third, fourth, or more. Why not? But character actors are relegated to the edges, set apart from focus, which is crucial for Support Your Local Gunfighter. Joann Blondell’s is about as sharp as a dull axe without the sharpness. Jack Elam plays the illiterate drunken slob, tagging on the title of the movie. The Body Windsor is the title’s character, Tagalong Molester, already a hooker; her nickname gives it all. Morgan plays the role he is stereotyped as: a winner-grabber. Dub Taylor whines so badly you would think saying You’ve Got This would be less painful than listening. Grady Sutton the grandson, features after floundering and covering the world of W. C.
Support Your Local Gunfighter is a piece by Burt Kennedy whose existence continues to baffle people as to why a period of depression in Hollywood does not seem to affect him. All of his movies (such as Support Your Local Sheriff) are surely ones worth watching, if only from an academic point of view. It is difficult for audiences, especially inexperienced film students, to analyze camera movement from the work of truly subtle directors. However, I believe you can learn a lot from how Burt Kennedy DOES NOT get his effects.
To tell a great joke requires true genius. But to make a bad and overly complex joke, all you need is a basic understanding of timing. Even then, Kennedy never quite gets to that level of humor. Anyone who knows how jokes work, and knows the punch line goes at the end, will end up directing a much better film than this. So, why did we deserve a Western comedy in 1971 that has a punch line in which the characters call a mule a jackass? During which…
Jack Elam wraps the movie by stating what happens after the story ends while standing on the back platform of the next train out of town. We are shown that James Garner did marry Suzanne Pleshette and that the gunfighter in question is still trying to get his boots off (perhaps he is beseeched to die with his boots on and is trying to save his life? ). And what happens to Elam? “Me? I go on to be a star in Italian Westerns,” he replies. To me, he sounded wistful and a little hopeful. It’s remarkable to witness someone make attempts at bettering themselves.
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