Destry Rides Again
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.64 You Save: $7.34 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.75 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Destry Rides Again
Movie Review: A Classic, Funny, Unexpectedly Touching Western With Stewart and Dietrich
Summary: 5 Stars
"Mr. Destry," says Kent, the tough gambler who runs the wide-open town of Bottleneck, "before we start drinking, I think you and me oughta come to an understanding." "Well, I'm all for folks understandin' each other. That's a mighty fine idea, Mr. Kent.," says Tom Destry, Jr., the town's new deputy sheriff. "I'm glad you agree with me," Kent says, "so I'll start by telling you that I have a very peculiar hobby." "So have I," says Tom. "Mine's carvin' napkin rings. What's yours?" Kent looks puzzled for a moment. "Mine's collectin' deputy sheriff's guns," he tells Tom. "Whenever I meet a new deputy, I always ask him for his gun. And I ask 'em real nice." "Well, I'm sorry Mr. Kent, I'm afraid this here's one gun your collection's gonna be minus." "You mean I'm gonna have to take it?" Kent says. "If you can. Now hold on, hold on. Don't get excited here. I was just tryin' to tell ya that I ain't got any guns. You see, if I would have had a gun there, why, one of us might have got hurt - and it might have been me. I wouldn't like that, would I?"
Is Destry Rides Again a spoof of cowboy movies, or a comedy, or a farce? Who knows? Who cares? It's one of the great films that emerged in 1939, and features excellent performances by James Stewart as the lanky, laconic, gun-averse Tom Destry and Marlene Dietrich as Frenchy, the saloon singer who has been playing a key role for Kent (Brian Donlevy) in cheating farmers and ranchers out of their property. Tom's been recruited by Wash Dimsdale, the town drunk, who was made sheriff by Kent as a joke when the previous sheriff disappeared with an apparent case of lead poisoning. Wash was friends with Tom's father, a tough, gun-wearing law enforcer who was shot in the back. When he sends for Tom, Jr., he's expecting a man as tough as Tom's father was. What Wash gets is Tom, Jr., who doesn't wear guns, tells stories to make a point, believes in law and order, and may just prove to be the smartest guy around.
Wash at first isn't convinced Tom can tame the town and beat Kent just by using the law. "The only way to do that is fill 'em full of lead," Wash tells Tom. "No, no, no, what for?" Tom says. "You shoot it out with 'em and for some reason or other, I don't know why, they get to look like heroes. But you put 'em behind bars and they look little and cheap, the way they oughta look." Destry's relationship with Frenchy is complex. In a way, he likes her but not what she stands for. He also thinks there's something better under the makeup than even she knows. "Oh now come on," he tells her. "I don't think you're half as bad as you make out to be." "Never mind what I am." she yells. He looks at her. "I'll bet you've got kind of a lovely face under all that paint, huh? Why don't you wipe it off someday and have a good look...and figure out how you can live up to it." She eventually does. The end of the movie is a curious, satisfying mixture of violence and sacrifice...and then humor and happiness.
Stewart does a perfect job as Destry. He's no one's fool, he's determined, he has a sense of wry humor. The surprise is Marlene Dietrich as Frenchy. She had been labeled box office poison. She took the assignment to create a better image for herself. She's still the glamour girl, but she's earthy, relaxed and funny to go along with that perfectly made-up face. Her wrestling match in the saloon with Una Merkel is a high point for both the movie and the new Dietrich. The two used no stunt doubles and went at each other with hair-pulling, wrestling holds, crashes against tables and all-out rolling around on the floor.
The cast also features a nice performance by Donlevy. He's ruthless and a killer, but, as with all Donlevy roles except for Beau Geste, there still is something likable about him. The cast includes some great character actors, including Charles Winninger, Mischa Auer, Jack Carson, Una Merkel and Billy Gilbert. My favorite is Samuel S. Hinds, who plays the tall, corrupt, tobacco-chewing, shrewd-eyed and elderly town mayor and judge. It's a clever performance.
Dietrich sings three saloon numbers in the movie, with music by Frederick Hollander and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The best, and best-known, is "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have..."
...And tell them I'm having the same.
Go see what the boys in the backroom will have,
And give them the poison they name.
And when I die, don't spend my money
On flowers and my picture in a frame.
Just see what the boys in the backroom will have,
And tell them I sighed,
And tell them I cried,
And tell them I died of the same.
Dietrich was lucky with Hollander. Nine years earlier in the movie that made her reputation, The Blue Angel, he gave her this song (with lyrics by Sammy Lerner):
Falling in love again, I never wanted to
What am I to do, I can't help it.
Love has always been my game, play it how I may
I was made that way, can't help it.
Men cluster to me like moths around a flame,
And if their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame
Falling in love again, I never wanted to
What am I to do, I can't help it.
Destry Rides Again is a first--rate movie that holds up over repeated viewing, thanks to an amusing, touching story, two inimitable performances by Stewart and Dietrich and a whole town's-full of skilled character actors. The DVD is bare-bones, but looks just fine.
Movie Review: Hilarious Western Comedy!
Summary: 5 Stars
Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart make a great combination in "DESTRY RIDES AGAIN". This movie was directed by none other than George Marshall (who would remake it in 1954 starring Audie Murphy), was suggested by the novel "Destry Rides Again" by Max Brand, and co-starred Brian Donlevy, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, and Una Merkel. The basic story is quite simple, actually. The brawling town of Bottleneck is run with an iron fist by Donlevy, and one night, the town sheriff Keogh is "mysteriously" killed, and a new sheriff Washington Dimsdale (Winninger) previously the town drunk, is appointed for the job. But he feels that by himself, he will not be enough, so he summons Tom Destry, Jr. (Stewart) to come and help him out. What eventually happens in the end I would not dream of telling, but I feel that much more of the film is devoted to the development of character and comedy between the cast members than there is time devoted to the main story itself. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. If the movie was too plot-laden, it would have no life, personality, or originality to it at all. In fact, there is a sprinkling of the story here and there, but it does in no way bog us down. Consider the scene where Jack Tyndall (Jack Carson) threatens Destry by telling him that he will take the law into his own hands if he has to. Destry fires right back at him by saying that he will not, and then he proceeds to tell one of his entertaining stories about the cement worker friend who was once an opry singer but is now the cornerstone of the post office in St. Louis, Missouri because he fell into the cement. "He should have stuck to his trade. You better stick to yours." George Marshall was one of the great directors who could do plot and character at the same time. He shows how people do not trust Destry to regain the town, but in the same scene, shows Destry's fondness for telling stories and Tyndall's general mule-headed nature. Other classic scenes are the great catfight between Merkel and Dietrich, the gunfight towards the end, and the last scene where the credits roll while that great music is playing. The last scene is also one of my favorites from the whole film as Destry says "Speaking of marriage...". Janice Tyndall, who obviously liked him throughout the whole film, replies with "Yes, Tom?". By the eagerness in her facial expression and her voice, she apparently thought he was going to propose. But instead, he takes us all by surprise by saying "I had a friend once..." (notice that smile on Stewart's face!). What a great film. One of the best!
NO SPECIAL FEATURES
Also Recommended: "MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON" (1939), "MADE FOR EACH OTHER" (1939), "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" (1946), "WINCHESTER '73" (1950), HARVEY (1950)
THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO ANYONE, LIVING OR DEAD, INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF "DESTRY RIDES AGAIN".
Movie Review: Odd combination that sparks!
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I watched this highly-amusing comedy, with "dramatic" touches, it had always seemed so strange (to me), the coupling of reliable & naive Jimmy Stewart with the exotic, alluring and sophisticated Marlene Dietrich...and above all, in a western!!
It's true that she (Dietrich) had starred previously with equally naive and all-american Gary Cooper in both in "Morocco" and "Desire", but the former was a Pre-Code set in Von Sternberg's "exotic" vision of the world (the desert in this case) and the latter wasn't "outside" Diretrich "bounds" either (as a myth), because it was a sophisticated continental romance, produced by Lubistch.
But boy!, in this film Marlene is so different from her previous roles an highly convincing as a notorious saloon singer, "Frenchy" (she's from New Orleans, Louisiana), who's the mistress of the town's villain (Brian Donlevy, great).
After Bottleneck's sheriff (the name of the town) is killed, in rather "obscure" circumstances, Donlevy arranges that the town's drunk (engagingly played by Charles Winninger) is given the job, `cos it's for sure that he wouldn't cause any trouble at all...
But, he's wrong, as everybody else, because Winninger calls for Tom Destry to become his deputy-sheriff, whose heroic father he knew when he was young, ....but, wait a minute!!... this mild-mannered guy (Stewart) cannot be "notorious" Destry's son...but not all is said, `cos this peculiar guy is a no-nonsense man!
Great support too from Mischa Auer, as Winininger's hilarious Russian brother-in-law, so desperately trying to be addressed by his own last name (Androvsky? or sth. like that), and not as "Callahan", his wife's (Una Merkel) very respectable, late first husband.
Mention apart deserves one of the best women-fight I ever saw onscreen, between Merkel and Dietrich.
The only thing that displeased me was one "aspect" of the ending, which I'm sure must have been imposed by the strict Production Code regulations (you'll know what I'm talking about after watching the movie yourselves), but in all, it's a great film!
The DVD copy is OK, considering the film's from 1939.
Movie Review: You've Got the Look
Summary: 5 Stars
We watched this particular DVD and I have to say, this film needs restoration badly. When Dietrich gets on stage to sing "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have,"you can barely distinguish her from the gauze curtain behind her. (Or was she photographed with a piece of gauze hung between her and the camera?) Universal did her no favors in the hair or makeup department either; when wet, her hair looks great, but dry, it looks like a Shirley Temple doll with shiny cellophane instead of human hair, and the cellophane is constantly winking and glittering in the camera's lens, like the jewels or sequins in her corsets and showgirl outfits. Now I know where Kylie Minogue got her total showgirl look.
It is a strange Western without Indians, though we hear them referred to in the dialogue, stories of how the elder Destry faced down a whole Comanche tribe, etc. Otherwise the conflict is between corrupt municipal bosses, allied with gamblers, who scheme to monopolize ownership of all surrounding land--that is, anywhere that could be used as a cattle trail. Wonder if the movie was inspired by current events in Europe; James Stewart, reluctant to strap on the guns and live as his father did, has to make up his mind in the face of escalating and evil violence--an allegory for the isolationism of the US when Hitler was taking over Europe? Everything fits, but if so, it makes the presence of Dietrich (and Mischa Auer) in the movie fit even more... Still you'd think there'd be Indians, or would that be a distraction from the anti-isolationist politics of the film?
Needless to say, we loved it. We devised a drinking game where we would take a shot every time the flustered sheriff pulled his shirt out of the front of his pants, and we took two shots every time Jimmy Stewart slowly and lovingly tucked it back in for him... we cried the last time he did this... in fact I'm still drunk.
Movie Review: Funny or not so funny?
Summary: 5 Stars
The box my DVD came in really played up the humor in this flick, going so far as to call it "hilarious." That's dumb. It had humor in it, it also had a good old fashioned plot. And Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. And great songs (Loesser only wrote the words for this one, and with only one false rhyme - cousins/dozens/husbands), all put across by an amazingly flexible (lots of different feelings, not just the usual stoneface and deadpan delivery I've come to expect of her) Dietrich. I loved it. I won't give away the ending in case there's someone left who doesn't know it, but I wonder whether the musical (Rome, Griffith, Gray) ended the same, of course I never saw the Bway show, and it irks me not to know. This movie actually made me dislike the Rome score that I have loved and enjoyed for years, and it also made me wonder how good Andy Griffith was in Jimmy Stewart's role. I can't imagine it. That part was made for Stewart. All the parts were well-cast and well done I thought. It's a great flick and I loved it. Not so funny though. A very serious plot with people getting killed. No carnage, blood and guts like you would expect today, but dead is dead. Still it was lightly done.