Destry Rides Again (1939)

Almost a comedy western – it's played straight but in a fairly light-hearted and non-serious way. James Stewart plays Thomas Destry, the son of a famous former Sheriff, who is brought into a corrupt town by the alcoholic(ish) current Sheriff to help clear it up. He is hindered, then helped, by Marlene Dietrich's saloon girl "Frenchy", who is initially involved in the corruption and then falls in love with Destry. Frenchy memorably sings "See what the boys in the backroom will have", which I take to be something of a euphemism.

Destry is initially almost a pacifist (much to the disappointment of the man who hired him), refusing to carry guns and instead defusing the situation by being nice to people – when tends to throw them off-guard – an rambling anecdotes about vaguely relevant people he knew once. As with most westerns with pacifist central characters, he does eventually relent, although in this case it doesn't come across as a betrayal of his character since it was more of a way of working rather than a belief system. Frenchy dies dramatically near the end, as saloon girls are liable to do. Little is made of the alcoholic sheriff: he cleans up almost as soon as he's (jokingly) appointed by the villains, hoping for his ineffectiveness.

One of the more interesting aspects is Destry's belief in holding up the letter of the law, rather than what is right. In the end this works out OK, and perhaps is mainly used as a means of temporarily disarming his opponents by seeming not to stand up to them, but it does seem like the sort of thing that might have presented him with a conflict at some point.

On the whole this is a fantastic piece of light entertainment. There's a few aspects of it where a different film might have explored the issues further, but perhaps it's unfair to expect this film to, and it doesn't really detract. All the acting fits perfectly, especially Stewart's, there's no reason not to enjoy it completely.