We won't be discussing the 1932 version for one very good reason... I've never seen it. It starred the movie cowboy of his day, Tom Mix, and snobby me just isn't interested in seeing movies that old because I haven't liked the few I've seen and in fact thought they bordered on horrible. I do know that the 1932 version is least like the book.
Let's lay out the general story before we chat about either of the other two movie versions for they are remarkably similar.
Bottleneck is a rip-roaring western town... it appears to have more people than we can count, is loud and noisy, and guns and shooting and mayhem and lawlessness seem to be the order of the day.
Saloon owner Kent, a murderous thug who controls most everything going on in Bottleneck. He has just swindled a zealous but naive homesteader out of his land in a crooked poker game, aided by a gorgeous saloon singer, Frenchy, who has just, oops, dropped a steaming cup of coffee in his lap while changing an ace for a two.
The sheriff comes to the man's aid and is secretly murdered for doing his job. The town is told he has suddenly been called away. Kent installs the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff in the belief he will do an ineffective job and lawlessness will prevail.
Oh think again. Wash, as he is called, suddenly gets a case of sheriffitis, sobers up and writes to young Tom Destry, offering him the job of deputy in the hopes that he can clean up Bottleneck, something that Wash knows he'd never accomplish. Wash used to work with Destry's father, a lawman who ruled by his own guns, kicked ass and took names later.
He makes the grand announcement to Kent, Frenchy and the rest of the town that some tough law and order deputy is about to arrive. But as Tom steps off the stagecoach, he is carrying a lady passenger's parasol and birdcage to the sounds of the town's uproarious laughter and Wash's moans.
Adding to the worry is Tom doesn't wear a gun although he soon takes a moment to show the naysayers what a crack shot he is.
While things settle down a little, Frenchy sings some songs and we meet some of Bottleneck's citizens. Two new ones, the Tindalls, brother and sister, arrive on the stage with Destry. She is sweet and decent (we need someone to contrast Frenchy) and has a yen for Tom. The brother is blustery and commanding and one of the few not willing to kowtow to Kent.
Most interesting, and played for comedy, are Boris and Lily. She runs the show and she's so unsure of her marriage to Boris, her second, that she calls him by her first husband's name, Callahan. Boris is a ne'er-do-well who wants to improve his lot in life and as we meet him, he's trying to beat Frenchy in a poker game in which he loses his pants... literally. When Lily is informed, she busts into the saloon and whacks the formidable Frenchy a good one... and audiences are treated to one of the best girl fights in all of moviedom. Remember, I've just seen it twice with four actresses. Pow. Slap. Scream. Hair-pulling. Heaven.
It ends with Tom pouring a bucket of water on the brawling women. When Lily sees how her dress has been torn and her unmentionables in full display, she hightails it out of the saloon. But Frenchy is enraged at Tom and she throws everything she can at him. Regardless of which version, this scene is the best in the film.
Of course, Destry has one scene after another to prove how fit he is for the job despite not wearing a gun. He quickly assesses that Kent is the source of the town's problems... gosh, it'd be a right nice lil town if it weren't for Kent. Tom knows Kent killed the sheriff or had him killed and he is determined to find the body. Tom sets up a trap (Columbo would have been so proud) to have a Kent henchman check where they hid the body and get nabbed and confess.
The end of the film is a slambang finish with the entire cast involved. It's a great shootout with the bad guys against the law and the other good guys. The womenfolk, at Frenchy's urging, get some backbone and some shovels, hoes and bats and dressed in their bonnets, aprons and gingham, march into town and start wailing on everyone in sight. Even Tom puts on his guns.
Frenchy, who has developed a fondness for Tom, is inside the saloon and as she looks up, she sees Kent's gun aimed a Tom, a few feet away from her. As she rushes toward him, she takes the fatal bullet that is meant for Tom. He kills Kent and we know Bottleneck will thrive. It'll be a good place to raise some yungins, some of which that Tindall sister and Tom will have together.
Here are some further details on the latter two versions:
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Directed by George Marshall
Starring Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Irene Hervey, Una Merkel, Jack Carson, Samuel Hinds, Billy Gilbert
It is a delicious comedy that satirizes and parodies the movie western. It was enormously popular at the time and remains a well-respected film to this day. It is too bad that it came out in 1939, considered the greatest year ever in American movies. You go ahead and ask Suri to tell you the movies made that year. Destry would have had a hard time getting to that Oscar podium in that crowd. Adding to that is the fact that it is a western and a comedy, two genres the Oscar folks have always had a little trouble with.
Destry provided both Stewart and Dietrich with their first westerns. (Stewart's Rose Marie in 1936 is apparently not considered a western.) He would not appear in another one throughout the 1940's. Gary Cooper was the first choice to play Tom Destry but he asked for too much money. Good. This is a wonderful role for Stewart in a lifetime of wonderful roles.
Dietrich didn't want to make the film because it was a western. What would I be doing in a western, the Teutonic temptress trilled, and some likely agreed with her. But her team saw it another way. She had just become an American citizen and they told her that they didn't think that she could be doing anything more American than a western.
Both Dietrich and Merkel have offered that their fight scene was un-choreographed, un-rehearsed and without stunt doubles. Director George Marshall told them they were not to use fists but apparently all else was on the table. Both were exhausted and bruised when it was finished but it was all done in one take. What troopers they were in those days.
I have always loved one rather extended scene that Dietrich and Stewart have on a love seat in her boudoir. The characters at that point were trying to understand that their relationship has taken on a new dimension and it was all expressed in a voiceless but seductive manner where they simply look one another over.
In real life the duo had looked one another over quite well. Throughout the filming they were involved in a romance that years later she confided involved a pregnancy and an abortion.
Dietrich was given three songs to sing... You've Got That Look, Little Joe the Wrangler and one that would become one of her signature songs, See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have.
Marshall is to be commended for steering a film with action, laughs and sentiment so seamlessly. There is not one moment that isn't damned good fun. I have always found Dietrich and Stewart to have had some magic up there on that screen. This was a perfect vehicle to display their many talents, separately and as a screen team.
In 1966 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Destry (1954)
Directed by George Marshall
Starring Audie Murphy, Mari Blanchard, Lyle Bettger, Thomas Mitchell, Edgar Buchanan, Lori Nelson, Wallace Ford, Mary Wickes, Alan Hale Jr.
I expect that back in the day I saw this version before I saw the 1939 version. I have said to readers a number of times that classics shouldn't be remade unless that remake is better than the original. Well, a little egg on my face here. This version is absolutely not better than the original, which is considered a classic. But once said, this is a pretty decent remake (actually I loved it as a kid and still hold it fondly) and there is a very good reason why that is.
It is almost a scene-by-scene retelling of the 1939 version. Once in awhile that happens with remakes. But the reason that it happened here is because both versions were directed by the same man, George Marshall. Very unusual. And if it's that close of a repeat, then why shouldn't it be good? In some ways, it's even better, believe it or not.
For one thing this version is in color and it is a gorgeous-looking film. I'm not saying the '39 version didn't work in black and white, but I love pretty and it didn't get much more colorful than a film out of Universal-International (as it was known throughout the 50's).
I also think two of the key supporting roles are better here. Brian Donlevy could play a bad guy quite well but few could beat the blond, steely-eyed Lyle Bettger as the wicked saloon owner. Additionally, Charles Winninger was fine as the reformed-drunk sheriff in the original, but Oscar winner Thomas Mitchell just nails it here. The role of the good girl, played by Irene Hervey in 1939, was built up to suit the talents of Lori Nelson, a Universal starlet who was impressing her bosses around this time.
Of course the most obvious difference is this version didn't star Jimmy Stewart or Marlene Dietrich. While B stars Audie Murphy and Mari Blanchard are more than capable in their roles, they are hardly Stewart and Dietrich. Actually, I would regard this film to be Murphy's best role in a western. It suited the actor's genial, low-key screen personality.
Blanchard was a great favorite of mine because she was always a feisty lead in westerns and 1954 was her best year. The big fight scene (with Mary Wickes) was every bit as exciting as the Dietrich-Merkel version. They also had no stunt doubles and Blanchard wound up in the hospital with a damaged nose.
The 1939 version was a happy set and if Marshall hoped to repeat it in 1954, he must have been very disappointed. Murphy was a prima donna and could be very moody but the director's main problems came with Blanchard. She detested him and he didn't think much of her either. I wish I had more details.
Blanchard was given three songs to sing... If You Can Can-Can, Empty Arms and Bang! Bang!
You'll take note that Rides Again was omitted from the title. And for some reason, all the characters names were changed from the '39 version except for Tom Destry. Frenchy is now Brandy.
One of the things that put the 1939 film in such high standing was that it was an homage to the western genre, done with impeccable humor. The '54 version is simply a good (and colorful) B western.
While we're at it, so popular is this story that it was done on Broadway with Andy Griffith in 1959 and was a brief 1964 television series starring John Gavin.
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