A Movie A Day: Destry Rides Again is a fun time for all

Another winner from that golden year of 1939 was this classic western, Destry Rides Again, that mixed comedy with gunplay quite effectively. This film was labeled as Marlene Dietrich's comeback film. She plays Frenchy, the saloon singer of the corrupt town called Bottleneck. And Dietrich is absolutely amazing. She belts out about 3 songs with the first one being the energetic Little Joe and then later on she sings See What The Boys in the Back Room Will Have. Of course this movie is called Destry and he is the character every one talks about. Truth is Jimmy Stewart who plays Tom Destry Jr, doesn't even show up until about 20 minutes into the movie. But once he arrives at the bequest of his father's old friend, he pretty much makes the movie his own. Stewart is so effortless in his acting ability that it seems like he's just hanging out with friends, having a good time. His Destry doesn't believe in guns, since they didn't do his father any good, who was gunned down in the streets. But Tom does believe in law and order and sets to clean up the town of Bottleneck. He runs into trouble in the form of Kent, a sleazy Brian Donlevy, who owns the saloon, and has a scam of cheating land owners out of their property with some crooked poker games. Kent then charges for cattlemen who come through the town a hefty price to pass through with their cattle. The former sheriff of Bottleneck was killed because he was about to shut Kent down, and the mayor, who is corrupt too, appoints the town drunk as the next sheriff, so their won't be any trouble from the law. But the surprise is when the sheriff calls in Tom Destry to be his deputy. When Destry first meets everyone at the saloon, he becomes the butt of their jokes. But he makes an impact on Frenchy, not in a good way. He breaks up her fight with Lily Belle (played by the hilarious Una Merkel) who husband (the equally hilarious Mischa Auer) was cheated by Frenchy in a card game. Their cat fight is a riot and Tom politely breaks it up by pouring a bucket of water on them. One of many funny scenes from this enjoyable movie. Destry Rides Again is one of the best films to come out ever, and the fact that it came out in 1939 only emphasizes that point of how good it really is.
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