Riotous as well as delightful Western spoof compellingly directed by Burt Kennedy with entertaining and amusing scenes in which a racketeer decides to go with the mistaken identity and use it to his profitable advantage along with his bumbling sidekick . Deliberately cliché-filled , ironical Western with top-notch starring duo as James Garner as a likable swindler and Suzanne Pleshette as fem-lib daughter and his love interest , both of whom giving great lots of fun . In the old west , a stranger trickster becomes a gunslinger just for the pay , figuring he can decamp if things get tough . The picture starts and finishes with a train (it is the Durango & Silverton narrow-gage sight-seeing train in Colorado) , as it appears in the opening credits , as in closing scenes . The film talks about a con man just passing through who gets roped into being a false gunfighter (James Garner) who at the end meets his nemesis , the real infamous Pistolero named "Swiftie" Morgan (Chuck Connors) , the fastest finger in the west . As when a card player called ¨Latigo¨ comes to the small town of Purgatory , things go wrong ; as one trouble-shooting gambler always puts his finger on it or in it . He has a big problem that requires a doctor (Dub Taylor), but that is not immediately disclosed . In Purgatory two rival companies of miners, led by Taylor Barton (Henry Morgan) and Colonel Ames (John Dehner) , are in a frenetic round-the-clock race to seek "the motherlode" of gold buried somewhere under the town . Meanwhile, Latigo is helped by an inept and botcher outlaw , Jug May (Jack Elam makes a robustly likable characterization with his tongue firmly in cheek) . In the final , he uses ingenuity instead and gets to tame a lawless mining town against all odds . This wacky spoof is packed with mayhem , lots of silly laughs and great entertainment and fun . Most of the laughters and sight gags galore work acceptably well ; humor is also bold and intelligent with a myriad of imaginative sketches . Demystified Western was one of a group of much-imitated which changed the concept of this particular genre each bent on disproving a popular myth , yet tinged with humor , spoof and combining with anti-heroes , and the inevitable protagonist decadence . Neatly subverts every Western cliché it encounters , yet keeps respect for formula Western . This is a follow-up , not a sequel to ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (1969) also starred by James Garner , Jack Elam and Harry Morgan . The formula deals to enhance the comics observations of the western originated on the decade 60s with the following filmmakers : Andrew McLagen and Burt Kennedy , fine director of this movie , and a bit later on , Mel Brooks directed the indispensable ¨Blazing saddles¨ , a surrealist , extreme and gross-out spoof with the ordinary bunch of loonies and loopies . Burt Kennedy directed similar Western blending comedy such as : ¨Support your local gunfighter (one of his better spoof Western)¨ , ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (his highpoint) , ¨Dirty Dingus Mcgee¨ , ¨War Wagon¨ and ¨ The Good guys and bad guys¨ . The picture is wonderfully amused and enjoyable , with James Garner as a tough gambler in his Maverick image who uses brains as well as brawny and guns . James Edward Grant's screenplay besides having more than its fair scraps of funny lines , throws up rich roles . Thus , James Garner is perfect as the deadpan womanizer who winds up becoming a fake gunman , as he convinces a colleague to carry out several lies among townsfolk . Special mention to Jack Elam as the sympathetic , snide brawler clearly relishing his comic relief . Remaining support cast is excellent , such as : Harry Morgan , Henry Jones , Joan Blondell , John Dehner , Willis Bouchey , Dub Taylor , Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez , Ellen Corby , Gene Evans , Ben Cooper , Kathleen Freeman and Marie Windsor replaced Marilyn Maxwell as "Goldie". Colorful cinematography rightly shot by magnificent cameraman Harry Stradling Jr , Burt Kennedy's usual . Jolly and lively musical score by Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson .This very funny and amiable motion picture with more than its fair share of laughters was well produced and directed by Burt Kennedy . He initially was screenwriter , his initial effort, ¨Seven men from now¨ (1956), was a superb western, the first of the esteemed collaboration between director Budd Boetticher and star Randolph Scott. Kennedy wrote most of that series, as well as a number of others for Batjac , although it would be nearly 20 years before Wayne actually appeared in the film of a Kennedy script . In 1960 Kennedy got his first work as a filmmaker on a western, ¨The Canadians¨ (1961), but it was a critical failure . He turned to television where he wrote and directed episodes of "Lawman" (1958), "The Virginian " (1962) and most notably ¨Combat!"(1962). He returned to films in 1965 with the successful ¨The Rounders¨ (1965) with Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford , later producing and directing the pilot for the TV series of the same name. ¨Support you local gunfighter¨ results to be one of his best Western . The film will appeal to absurd, unruly , wacky Western comedy fans . This raucous Western spoof is a James Garner vehicle , if you like his particular performance , you'll enjoy this one .

As with other reviewers, I saw and really liked SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. A really good story, really good script, very likable characters. Then I saw SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER. Really awful story (if you can call it a story), really terrible script, completely unlikable (and unbelievable) characters. The "heroine" is a psycho who shoots at anybody and everybody for no reason at all. The "hero" is a piece of scum trying to survive by conning women out of their dough. The so-called plot doesn't actually kick in until the end of the movie, and then we are treated to a villain in terrible makeup who seems to struggle just to say his lines. I like really good french toast. If LOCAL SHERIFF is good french toast, then GUNFIGHTER is a piece of soggy molded five-day-old bread crawling with flies. Yuck.

This film came out two years after SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. Aside from having very similar titles, both starred James Garner, Harry Morgan and Jack Elam in very similar roles, and the plot itself was so close to the first film it made me wonder why they didn't try something a little more original. Oddly, despite all the similarities, this second film was actually written long before they even made SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. However, because of the extreme similarity of the films, I really can't rate SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER any higher--though it's still a nice little Western-comedy.James Garner's character is a bit more amoral and weasel-like in this film as he plays a clever con man determined to take advantage of a war brewing between rival mine owners (Harry Morgan and John Dehner). His plan is to pretend that his new-found bumbling sidekick (Elam) is the dreaded gunman, Swifty Morgan and capitalize on how much everyone fears this famous hired gun. The problem is that eventually, the REAL Morgan comes to town and it looks bad for Garner and Elam.While the script was pretty good, there was one big difference about this film that I really disliked. In SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF, the female lead was played by Joan Hackett and she was a total kook--a lovable kook, but a kook nonetheless. Here, Susan Pleshette plays a woman who is rather psychotic and IMPOSSIBLE TO LOVE--someone who would have been institutionalized or killed--not someone who would win the man's hand at the end of the film!! Her psychotic outbursts simply weren't funny and really hindered the film whenever she appeared. While I loved Ms. Pleshette in many roles, this one was simply beneath her. As a result of this and the repetitive quality of the film, it's not a film you must see but more of a likable time-passer. Do yourself a favor and see SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF and only see this second film if you feel you need a lot more of the same.

This is a comedy western movie but it is a different one because there is not much fight or gunfight in it. This is very sympathetic movie also funny in some scenes. Our hero is a new yorker guy that steals women money with charming them. He comes to west city but he doesn't like the west and the guns, horses and etc. People in this city thinks he is a hired famous gunman, he uses this identity. This is the general subject of the movie. Acting is good for a comedy movie, there is also romance and this is a plus for this one. I liked this movie and enjoyed when watching but if you look for a classic movie don't look at this one. I watched this one at a Sunday morning.