All the while I'm watching this story, it seemed like a parody Western to me. Where else have you seen a bead studded holster like the one Johnny Hart (Rod Cameron) wore; he looked like he belonged in "Blazing Saddles" along side Cleavon Little. The principal villain Blackie (Sheldon Leonard) struck me the same way too with the Snidely Whiplash mustache and odd wardrobe. And then there was the interminable slap and kiss routine between Cameron's character and Yvonne De Carlo's Lorena Dumont. Gee, two or three times would have been enough, but even after that exchange they went for a bonus round later in the picture.
I don't know, this movie just didn't feel right to me. Cameron himself looked like he might have been trying to channel Randolph Scott, what with all the outfit changes and a look that resembled his contemporary. Scott wouldn't have gotten involved in all the gimmicks though, like using the old tree escape from a posse chasing on horseback, not once but twice. Then, when Johnny gets hustled off to jail for manslaughter, the six year interlude blew by in a flash, not even a commercial break could have fixed that disconnect.
And gosh - who thought it was a good idea for the six year old daughter of Hart and Rena to shoot a rattlesnake in her bedroom? Boy, the filmmakers sure were stretching for ideas there. With the chemistry and motivations being all wrong in the story between the principals, I just couldn't warm up to this one, even with Andy Devine and Fuzzy Knight in the cast. Come to think of it, even they didn't seem up to their normal hi-jinks. I think I'll go watch "Blazing Saddles" again.
I don't know, this movie just didn't feel right to me. Cameron himself looked like he might have been trying to channel Randolph Scott, what with all the outfit changes and a look that resembled his contemporary. Scott wouldn't have gotten involved in all the gimmicks though, like using the old tree escape from a posse chasing on horseback, not once but twice. Then, when Johnny gets hustled off to jail for manslaughter, the six year interlude blew by in a flash, not even a commercial break could have fixed that disconnect.
And gosh - who thought it was a good idea for the six year old daughter of Hart and Rena to shoot a rattlesnake in her bedroom? Boy, the filmmakers sure were stretching for ideas there. With the chemistry and motivations being all wrong in the story between the principals, I just couldn't warm up to this one, even with Andy Devine and Fuzzy Knight in the cast. Come to think of it, even they didn't seem up to their normal hi-jinks. I think I'll go watch "Blazing Saddles" again.