Destry Rides Again (1939) on Netflix
Approved19391h 34mComedyWestern
Kent holds Bottleneck's cattle ranchers in his grip, so the mayor appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as sheriff. Dimsdale sends for Tom Destry Jr., a deputy who won't wear a gun.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.6/1013,651 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
Kent runs the saloon in Bottleneck and holds the local cattle ranchers in his grip; Frenchy, the saloon singer, is his girlfriend. Sheriff Keogh had been asking about a rigged poker game, so the mayor, Hiram J. Slade, who is in league with Kent, hands the sheriff's post to the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, counting on a man he can steer. Dimsdale swears off drinking and calls in Tom Destry Jr., whose father was the lawman Dimsdale served as deputy. Destry rides in with the cattleman Jack Tyndall and Tyndall's sister Janice, will not strap on a gun, and deals politely with Kent and Frenchy, leaving Dimsdale disappointed and the townspeople amused.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Destry Rides Again (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The story featured a ferocious cat-fight between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel which apparently caused a mild censorship problem at the time of release.
- Unsure what to do after Joe Pasternak offered her work at Universal at half the salary she had been getting for most of the 1930s, Marlene Dietrich was advised by her mentor Josef von Sternberg: “I made you into a Goddess. Now show them you have feet of clay.”
- According to writer-director Peter Bogdanovich, Marlene Dietrich told him during an aircraft flight that she and James Stewart had an affair during shooting and that she became pregnant but had a surreptitious abortion without telling Stewart.
- The film was James Stewart's first Western; he would not return to the genre until 1950, with Winchester '73, followed by Broken Arrow.
- Marlene Dietrich's character Frenchy was the inspiration for the character of Lili Von Shtupp in the Western parody Blazing Saddles.
