Themes: Taming the West, Fighting the System, Sheriffs and Outlaws
Main Cast: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Winninger, Mischa Auer, Brian Donlevy
Release Year: 1939
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
Plot
Tom Destry (James Stewart), son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn't believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent (Brian Donlevy). His detractors laugh even louder when Destry signs on as deputy to drunken sheriff Wash Dimsdale (Charles Winninger). But the laughter subsides when Destry casually proves himself a crack shot, despite his abhorrence of firearms. Later, when saloon chanteuse Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich), Kent's gal, takes umbrage at Destry's indifferent reaction to her charms, she vows to make a fool of the new deputy. A huge moneymaker, Destry Rides Again served as a spectacular comeback for Marlene Dietrich, who two years earlier had been written off as "box office poison." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Destry Rides Again was a huge critical and box-office success in 1939, a year that had many critical and box-office successes and that is often considered to have produced more great films than any other year of the 20th century. Max Brand, the author of the source novel, is little remembered today, but in his era he was a prolific and popular writer who created such memorable screen successes as the Doctor Kildare series. Sadly, Brand was killed at the height of his career, while serving as a war correspondent in Italy during World War II. Brand's story was considerably changed for the screen, and as a result there are occasional inconsistencies of characterization for Destry, who sometimes seems a bit too inclined to fight for a pacifist. Yet, in Tom Destry, James Stewart creates one of the screen's most likable characters, and the film's success revived the career of Marlene Dietrich, who had been dumped from her studio contract by Paramount because of her temperamental behavior and perceived weak box-office appeal. The problem, though, proved to be not that audiences had tired of Dietrich but that they had tired of her in the melodramatic films that Paramount put her in. Free of Paramount, Dietrich found a broader range of work and once again became a bankable star. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Martin Obzina - Art Director, Jack Otterson - Art Director, Vera West - Costume Designer, Vernon Keays - First Assistant Director, George Marshall - Director, Miton Carruth - Editor, Frank Skinner - Composer (Music Score), Charles Previn - Musical Direction/Supervision, Hal Mohr - Cinematographer, Joe Pasternak - Producer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Bernard B. Brown - Sound/Sound Designer, Felix Jackson - Screenwriter, Henry Myers - Screenwriter, Gertrude Purcell - Screenwriter, Max Brand - Book Author
In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Saloon owner Kent (Brian Donlevy), the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's Sheriff, Keogh, killed when the Sheriff asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and "Frenchy" (Marlene Dietrich), his girlfriend and the dance hall queen, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The crooked town's mayor, Hiram J. Slade (Samuel S. Hinds), who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale (Charles Winninger), as the new sheriff, assuming that he'll be easy to control and manipulate. But what the mayor doesn't know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under the famous lawman, Tom Destry and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry, Jr. (James Stewart) to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.
Destry confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun in spite of demonstrating that he is an expert marksman. He still carries out the "letter of the law", as deputy Sheriff, and wins over their respect. A final confrontation between Destry and Kent's gang is inevitable, but "Frenchy" is won over by Destry and changes sides. A final gunfight ensues where Frenchy is killed in the crossfire, and the rule of law wins the day.
Famed Western writer, Max Brand contributed the original novel, Destry Rides Again but the story soon became a typical "oater" with the town of Bottleneck set on a Hollywood sound stage.
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