Title: Destry Rides Again
Year: 1939
Director: George Marshall
Writers: Felix Jackson, Gertrude Purcell and Henry Myers from the novel by Max Brand
Stars: Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Brian Donlevy, Jack Carson

The Story: His famous father died in a gunfight, so the amiable Destry Junior tries to clean up a crooked town without ever using a gun. It’s a tall order, because a ruthless gang is stealing people’s land with the help of certain German saloon singer.

Why It’s Great: There’s a central paradox at the heart of most Westerns: law and order must be upheld –by shooting the bad guys dead in the street. Given the way that movies tend to escalate, it’s very hard to make one that champions pacifism, and all the harder if the story is set out west where the law can’t protect the weak. If a western shows pacifism as an option, as High Noon does, then that option is proven wrong. Not so here. Yes, Stewart ultimately has to put on a gun at the very end, but by that point we don’t want him to. This is amiable comedy, but it’s also a thoughtful movie about moral courage. One of the 1939 movies that auteurists do mention a lot is John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln, starring Stewart’s former roommate Henry Fonda. That movie is fun but very hokey. This movie works better as a parable for Lincoln’s presidency, with Stewart as a tall tale version of the president–Like Lincoln, Destry pretends to be a rube and tells meandering jokes to defuse dangerous situations, all the while quietly accumulating the power he needs to save the town. This is the liveliest and most authentic version of the president we’ve gotten onscreen so far.

Two more reasons at Cockeyed Caravan…