Support Your Local Sheriff! – Review

The townsfolk of Calendar, located in the Colorado Territories, gather to bury Millard Frymore, or whatever his name really was. He was in town for a whopping two days, and was struck down by whatever disease got him. The townsfolk mostly hope it was not contagious, and that no one had too much contact with him. However… under Millard’s coffin in the hole below… Prudy Perkins (Hackett) and her Pa Olly (Morgan) notices GOLD!!

Here the town whips itself into a frenzy at the grave site. They know they are in the right place! All of a sudden, wagons upon wagons zoom to the site, setting up a town almost instantly. Olly becomes Mayor of the settlement full of fine people, however of course corrupt rich goons from the Danby family also run amok.

Despite only existing briefly, the streets are full of gunfights, lynchings and drunken revelry. The real issue is that there is no law. The town council doesn’t seem to care, but the mine owners want to bring about some real change and protect their investments. The mine owners are sick of paying 20% to the rough and rugged Danby family, which owns the ranch in-between Calendar and Galena, where all the gold must be shipped, and take their large tax. The road runs through their property, and they own the entire valley. If they don’t get their 20% the hold up the stages and take it all.

In rides Jason McCullough (Garner), looking to strike it rich with gold and eventually move to Australia, because why the hell not! McCullough is not scared by the Danby family, as he watches one of the boys, Joe Danby (Dern), blast another man to death over a card game. Joe did a sneaky trick to feint towards his gun, making the other man “draw first,” which McCullough notes. It was self-defense, per Joe, but Jason calls this out immediately. It’s an old trick.

Joe is not happy with Jason calling out his bullshit. This sets off a usual western type chain of events, setting these men at odds. Good thing McCullough is an exceptional gunman… The town’s prices however are massively inflationary, and drive Jason into near poverty despite his search for gold. So, maybe he can get real work as the Sheriff! That should solve all problems, right?

Support Your Local Sheriff! is a fun time to be had in a western gold rush setting. It definitely leans into comedy and satire a bit, though it is not an outright spoof by any means, to me at least. It has some goofy vibes but a decent enough story to go along with its jokes. Garner is a great lead, and the balance of comedy, fun and western action is well blended.

There is a quasi-sequel called Support Your Local Gunfighter from the same director and featuring James Garner, however the characters and plot are different.