Destry

A frontier town is in the hands of the man who owns the gambling house; the sheriff is his man too. Tom Destry is called in as deputy. The man who arrives represents the law as his father did, but carries no gun and will not fight; he tries to settle everything by talking and by patience. The town laughs at him at first. The singer at the gambling house sizes him up too and does not take him seriously to begin with. What is actually interesting about the film is who made it: George Marshall had also directed Destry Rides Again in 1939, with James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. Fifteen years later he shot the same story again almost scene for scene, saying he wanted to do it in colour and improve some of it. A director remaking his own film is a rare thing. This time Audie Murphy has the lead. Comparison is unavoidable, and most critics preferred the 1939 version.