Calendar, Colorado, is a boom town with a problem: The Danby family.
To transport its gold to neighboring Galena, miners have to travel across Danby land. And the Danby’s are demanding a 20 percent tariff for doing so.
That’s also put the Danby clan, led by Pa Danby (Walter Brennan) in a position where they think they’re above the law in Calendar.
Not that there’s much law around. The town has gone through three sheriffs in a short period of time thanks to the Danby’s intimidation tactics.
Then Jason McCullough (James Garner), a cowboy bound for Australia, rides into town. He’s decided to check out the gold strike before heading on. He agrees to become Calendar’s next sheriff.
With former stable worker Jake (Jack Elam) as his deputy, McCullough uses his quick thinking and quicker gun to begin restoring peace and order in Calendar.
He also slaps Joe Danby (Bruce Dern) in his partly completed jail, a move sure to enrage the rest of the Danby clan.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s job means room and board at Mayor Perkins house and brings him into contact with the mayor’s daughter Prudy (Joan Hackett), the most peculiar gal the new sheriff has ever met.
James Garner as Jason McCullough in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Jack Elam as Jake, McCullough’s deputy in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Review:
Hallelujah! At a time when most comedy Westerns were overlong and not very funny at all, director Burt Kennedy, Garner, Hackett and company put together a neat little film.
Elam is a delight as McCullough’s reluctant deputy; Brennan perfect in the role as leader of the Danby clan and other clever touches help too.
Calendar’s jail has no bars. McCullough keeps Joe Danby in line by drawing a chalk boundary he isn’t allowed to cross and splattering red paint on the floor, pretend blood from the last inmate who tried to cross that line.
The film begins with a mud-filled fight in the middle of town. Embarrassed to be caught cleaning up, in her underwear and hair wet, Hackett’s Prudy tries to avoid an encounter with the handsome new sheriff and winds up climbing a tree.
It turns out to be their first meeting.
But this wouldn’t be the last teaming for most of the cast. They’d return — minus Hackett — in a sorta sequel called “Support Your Local Gunfighter” (1971).
Joan Hackett as Prudy Perkins tries to explain her tree climbing in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Walter Brennan as Pa Danby in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Directed by:
Burt Kennedy
Cast:
James Garner … Jason McCullough
Joan Hackett … Prudy Perkins
Walter Brennan … Pa Danby
Harry Morgan … Mayor Perkins
Jack Elam … Jake
Henry Jones … Henry Jackson
Bruce Dern … Joe Danby
Willis Bouchey … Thomas Devery
Gene Evans … Tom Danby
Walter Burke … Fred Johnson
Dick Peabody … Luke Danby
Kathleen Freeman … Mrs. Danvers
Dick Haynes … Bartender
Runtime: 92 min.
Bruce Dern as Joe Danby, one of Pa Danby’s boys in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Harry Morgan as Calendar Mayor Perkins in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Memorable lines:
Mayor Perkins: “You interested in the job of sheriff?”
Jason McCullough: “Maybe. How much does it pay?”
Customer in Perkins store: “Well, none of our sheriffs ever lived long enough to find out/”
Jason McCullough, having accepted the job of sheriff: “Is there some kind of badge that goes with this job.”
Mayor Perkins: “Oh, you bet.” He fetches it and passes it to McCullough. “I’m afraid it’s a little bent up.”
McCullough, inspecting the badge: “That must have saved the life of whoever was wearing it.”
Perkins: “Well, it sure would have, if it wasn’t for all those other bullets flying in from everywhere.”
Gene Evans as Tom Danby, one of Pa Danby’s boys in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Dick Peabody as Luke Danby, one of Pa Danby’s boys in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Sheriff McCullough to Joe Danby: “It’s bad enough to have to kill a man without having to listen to a whole lot of stupid talk from him first.”
Sheriff McCullough: “That’s quite a daughter you got yourself there.”
Mayor Perkins: “I think she’s crazy … She’s had some terrible shocks this year. She got wealthy almost overnight. I think it unhinged her a little bit. And she was always kind of big for her age. Puberty hit her hard.”
Sheriff McCullough: “We do have a judge around here, don’t we?”
Joe Danby, sitting in his cell without bars: “We never needed one til you came around and ruined everything.”
Walter Burke as council member Fred Johnson and Willis Bouchey as miner Thomas Devery, in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Henry Jones as Calendar, Co., councilman Henry Jackson in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
Jason McCullough: “Well, it seems Joe murdered a man this afternoon.”
Pa Danby: “The way I heard it, he killed a man in a fair gunfight.”
McCullough: “I was standing right there.”
Danby: “You was standin’ right where?”
McCullough: “In the saloon when Joe killed him.”
Danby: “Well, now that was real smart of him, weren’t it?”
McCullough: “I’ve been around Joe all afternoon and I haven’t seen him do one smart thing yet.”
Pa Danby to the sheriff: “Get your finger out of the end of my gun!”
Luke Danby to his Pa: “He stuck his finger in the end of your what?”
Sheriff McCullough, referring to Joe Danby, locked in his jail: “Did he seem to feel any sorrow over the fact that we all might be killed?”
Jake: “No, it’s more like he planned to dance and spit all over our graves.”
McCullough: “Sounds like Joe.”
Joan Hackett as Prudy Perkins, annoyed at having been caught in a tree in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
James Garner as Jason McCullough in Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
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