A previous reviewer explains how the basic situation of this movie - a B Western movie star's movies are run on early tv, he suddenly gains new fame - was derived from that of the last Hoppalong Cassidy star.
My two-cents' worth is just to repeat what others have said in praise of Howard Keel's dual performance as the drunken former B-Western movie cowboy (Callaway) and his doppelganger, a nice if excessively innocent young man who is found to replace the missing Callaway. It's sort of like a variant on the Prisoner of Zenda. Keel did a nice job of differentiating the two without exaggerating either of them.
The only problem with that is that it leaves the leading man in the movie, Fred MacMurray, looking like rather unpleasant small potatoes by comparison.
Dorothy McGuire does a nice job in a weakly written role.
The rest is pretty forgettable.
As it stands, this is a pleasant movie. With a much better script, the same cast could have done a lot more with it.
My two-cents' worth is just to repeat what others have said in praise of Howard Keel's dual performance as the drunken former B-Western movie cowboy (Callaway) and his doppelganger, a nice if excessively innocent young man who is found to replace the missing Callaway. It's sort of like a variant on the Prisoner of Zenda. Keel did a nice job of differentiating the two without exaggerating either of them.
The only problem with that is that it leaves the leading man in the movie, Fred MacMurray, looking like rather unpleasant small potatoes by comparison.
Dorothy McGuire does a nice job in a weakly written role.
The rest is pretty forgettable.
As it stands, this is a pleasant movie. With a much better script, the same cast could have done a lot more with it.