The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw

The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw
March 14, 1959
Fox
Comedy, Western
DVD
D-

I could go on and on about how remarkably unentertaining this is, with its poor writing (including songwriting), direction, and acting (Mansfield's accent is so bad that "loco" sounds like "local"), not to mention the racism against Indians, slightly redeemed towards the end.  I could point out all the things I disliked, with the only things I liked being a too brief Robert Morley cameo and a collie that knows how to play poker.  Or I could compare this to the far from brilliant but still better comedy westerns of 1940 Go West and My Little Chickadee.  But I think this trailer explains things better than I ever could:
http://youtu.be/VyhXwEn9EQs

Unlike Raoul Walsh, at least Tashlin could've done something with the Freudianism.

Go West

Go West
December 6, 1940
MGM
Comedy, Western, Musical
VHS
C+

Edward Buzzell directed, and Irving Brecher wrote, At the Circus as well, so it's not surprising that this is equally good, and equally bad.  You could almost skip the first half, or at least fast-forward from Harpo and Chico swindling Groucho up to the safe-cracking scene.  Then stay tuned through the surprisingly charming "Riding the Range" song with the male romantic lead, Groucho, and Chico.  But avoid the "red Indian" scene, which is not only racist but tedious.  (Harpo's "loom" harp might be worth slowing down for.)  Get up to the big chase scene, between a train and a buggy, and you're good till the end.  (Buster Keaton again gave uncredited support, and this climax is clearly his idea rather than Brecher's.)  The Marxes' other C+s so far-- The Cocoanuts, A Day at the Races, and At the Circus-- don't divide up so neatly.  (For instance, there are scenes in Cocoanuts that are kind of boring and then have a good moment or two.)  The best unintentionally funny moments are the "I hate you more" romantic scene (some of which seems to be delivered by a horse) and Lulubelle's deep singing voice.  Set in 1870, the film has tons of anachronisms, of varying degrees of amusement, the sneakiest being Groucho's name, S. Quentin Quale.  ("San Quentin quail" meant jailbait.)  However, no one in the audience will be as amused as the two villains, who spend a great deal of time chortling over their schemes, without even having good villain laughs.

One of the villains, Walter Woolf King, was Lassparri in A Night at the Opera.  Heroine Diana Lewis was the debutante in Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, which featured George Lessey.  Lew Harvey would shortly be in Citizen Kane.  James Dime would go on to Road to Morocco, Harry Wilson to Some Like It Hot, and Iris Adrian to Freaky Friday.

My Little Chickadee

My Little Chickadee
March 15, 1940
Universal
Comedy, Western
DVD
C+

This doesn't live up to its potential, considering that W. C. Fields and Mae West not only co-star but co-wrote.  Also, it has Margaret Hamilton as a busybody, but a more prudish one than The Wizard of Oz's Miss Gulch.  There are some funny lines, but the movie never clicks, and there are some serious moral problems.  Yes, partly to do with sex, but not how you might expect.  West gets meek-looking Donald Meek (soon to be in Turnabout) to perform a fake wedding ceremony.  She has tricked herself into thinking Fields has money.  She keeps the "marriage" from being consummated, partly by putting a goat in her bed!  Later, Fields masquerades as the masked bandit she's in love with (although she's never seen the bandit's face), so he's not any better than she is.  (The identity of the bandit seemed painfully obvious to me, partly because he didn't disguise his voice much.  She figures it out from a kiss.)

While on the one hand, it's cool to see West fight off a train robbery almost single-handedly (although Fields is the one who brags about it later), I didn't like the way she joked about shooting the attackers, who are Indians.  And she attempts to rob Fields later, although since he's a dishonest gambler, I can't feel too sorry for him.  West was then 48 and looked it, but she's presented as young, and of course all the men, and a classroom full of teenaged boys, have to swoon at her feet.  Of course, this is nothing compared to the suspension of disbelief in Sextette (1978), but I find that awful movie a lot of fun, and her character much more sympathetic there.  Watch this one just to say that you've seen it, and don't expect much.  (The ending exchange is good however, although it shows some of their offscreen dislike.)

Morgan Wallace was in It's a Gift.  Otto Hoffman was in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.  Lita Chevret was in The Women.  Delmar Watson, thirteen at the time of this movie, had appeared in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man and His Girl Friday.  Si Jenks was in some of my other movies, including A Day at the Races.  Jan Duggan has a much less memorable role here than in The Old Fashioned Way and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, but she would appear in The Bank Dick, as would Fay Adler, Harlan Briggs, Charles Hart, George Moran, Dorothy Vernon, and Bill Wolfe.

The Phantom Empire

The Phantom Empire (AKA Radio Ranch)
February 23, 1935
Mascot Pictures
Western, Sci-Fi, Musical
VHS
C+

Low-budget serial edited into a feature, yes, covering all of the above genres.  Gene Autry, sort of playing himself, is a radio singer who, with his teen sidekicks Frankie and Betsy, battles evil scientists and evil Muranians.  The movie is never as much fun as all the elements would suggest, even if it does have such futuristic Muranian devices like gingerbread-men-like robots, a television device, and "wireless telephone," combined with horses, an airplane, and corny Country songs.  Still worth a look, if only as one of the stranger movies to be influenced by The Birth of a Nation.