Movies - Destry Rides Again

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Destry Rides Again

	Movies - Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again is a 1939 western film directed by George Marshall, starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Bill Cody, Jr., and Una Merkel.

This is both a comedy and a drama, about how a corrupt and violent town can be cleaned up without relying entirely on physical force. It demonstrates the power the cooperation between men and women, as well as what can be done by putting respect for the law over reliance on brawn.

Characters:

Kent - saloon owner
Slade - mayor
Callahan - henpecked Russian
Frenchy - the saloon singer
Wash - new sheriff
Destry - new deputy

The film opens to the usual drunken men's brawl, but outside the tavern rather than in. We then watch the saloon owner and Frenchy (Dietrich) cheat a man out of his ranch. Frenchy spills coffee on the man when he gleefully bets his $10,000 ranch with an unbeatable poker hand. Kent's stooge replaces the man's ace in the hole with a deuce. When Sheriff Keho goes up to investigate, Kent's gang murders him and hides his body. The mayor announces that Keho has suddenly gone away on business and picks the banjo playing town drunk to be the new sheriff. Unexpectedly, this former deputy of the great Destry suddenly swears off drinking: "You gotta choose between the bottle or the badge". He announces that he's sending for Tom Destry, Junior who cleaned up Tombstone.

A cattleman and his sister ride on the 6-horse stage along with Tom. The hot-headed cattleman complains about the bumpy ride, while his sister says she doesn't mind at all. Tom watches with calm, almost amused detachment. He then deflates Jack with a homespun anecdote about a violent man who went up against the wrong person one day, and is now pushing up the prettiest flowers in his hometown cemetery.

Kent introduces himself as a man with an unusual hobby - taking deputy's guns - and the other men edge cautiously away, but Destry defuses the situation by announcing he doesn't carry a gun. But people are not disappointed because a big fight does indeed break out: it's a cat fight over Callahan between his wife and Frenchy: "You know he'd rather be cheated by me than married to you." It lasts over two minutes and is broken up by Destry pouring water over the two women. It's a running joke that Callahan is treated like a pouting boy by his domineering wife.

Destry believes in law and order, but not in guns. This is the paradox of the film. A casual observer might think he was a pacifist. But he does believe in using force, just not in violent shoot-outs. A violent confrontation makes the bad guys look like heroes somehow, but locking them up in jail makes them look cheap and serves as a warning to the rest.

Destry is actually the most forceful man in town. When the sheriff talks of quitting, because Destry refuses to challenge the bad guys with guns a-blazing, Destry grabs his shoulder and turns him around. "You're not going back to being the town drunk!" He makes him swear him in. When three horsemen come in, shooting their pistols for fun, Destry tells them to hold on. One man calls him "No Gun Destry", but he asks if he can heft the other's guns. He then shoots the knobs off a sign and angrily tells the much subdued gun owner, "The next time, I'll put you in jail."

Destry stops another gun fight by siding with Kent against Claggett, the man he cheated, and permits Kent to throw Claggett off the ranch he worked ten years for. "We gotta respect the law. No two ways about it, right?" He also visits Frenchy "to apologize" (but really to appeal to her better nature).

He gives Callahan a pair of pants to help locate Keogh's body. No pacifist, Destry punches out Jack when he insultingly accuses him of accepting bribes from Kent.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

A western with a very similar plot and similar comic effects is Michael Curtiz's Dodge City.

A Broadway musical version of the story, Destry Rides Again, opened in New York at the Imperial Theater on April 23, 1959, and played 472 performances. Produced by David Merrick, the show had music and lyrics by Harold Rome and starred Andy Griffith as Destry and Dolores Gray as Frenchy. Obviously influenced by having played the role of Destry, when Andy Griffith became the star on The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), the main character, Andy Taylor, was a sherrif who carried no gun.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Destry Rides Again ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Destry Rides Again; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay