7/10
Western comedy with George Marshall's inspired direction
25 May 2010
A peaceful and milksop cowboy named Johnnny performed by James Stewart cleans up an uncontrollably lawless Western town called Bottleneck . The mild Johnny is appointed as deputy by the drunk but crusading sheriff well played by Charles Winninger . These were the adventures , fighting , laughing and brawling from Tombstone to Bottleneck . The film starts with a label captioning ¨ Welcome to Bottleneck ¨ and a traveling leads to a Saloon called ¨ Last Dance ¨ where rules the powerful nasty played by Brian Donlevy . There James Stewart/Johnny meets Frenchie/Marlene Dietrich . Johnny makes Marlene change her brand . A hard-boiled Dietrich with a difference -rouged but rugged- who fights , yells, yodels her way , sharp-nailed to love.

This is a classic Hollywood Western , it turns out to be a mixture of action , fights, shootouts and humor. Lovely acting of Marlene Dietrich as the impulsive Saloon girl, she sings on the bar vintage songs as ¨ See what the boys in the back room will have ¨ and ¨ Little Joe the wrangler ¨ by Frederick Hollander and Frank Loesser and musical score by Frank Skinner. Dietrich , in her post-Stemberg moment , was labeled as Box-Office poison but this brawling Western turned her movie career all around the world and became her a hot actress again . James Stewart ideally cast as unarmed sheriff shows his usual delicious fair play for comedy , in a similar interpretation to ¨ Mr. Smith goes to Washington ¨ who recently starred. This spirited realization that never flags results to be a potpourri of Western , comedy , irony and action .

This is the second of four adaptations based on the novel by Max Brand , the first was titled by American exhibitors as ¨ Justice rides again (1932) ¨ with Tom Mix and the third version released in 1951 under title ¨ Frenchie ¨ and fourth take on exhibited in 1954 also directed by George Marshall with Eddie Murphy and Marie Blanchard in similar characters to James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.
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