Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) on Netflix
A frontier town in the Colorado Territory strikes gold, and the Danby family charges a toll on the only road out. Jason McCullough, broke and bound for Australia, takes the sheriff's job.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.4/1014,849 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
A frontier town in the Colorado Territory springs up overnight after Prudy Perkins spots gold in a freshly dug grave at a funeral. Her father, Olly, becomes its first mayor, but the Danby family, ranchers who control the only road in or out, charge the prospectors a toll, and no sheriff has lasted. Jason McCullough, a skilled gunfighter on his way to Australia, arrives with little money. In the saloon he watches Joe Danby shoot a man over a card game, so he takes the sheriff's job and shows the mayor and council his marksmanship. He breaks up a street brawl, meets Prudy, and jails Joe in an unfinished cell with no bars, holding him with a chalk line and red paint while scruffy Jake becomes his deputy.
Cast
- Dick Peabodyas Luke Danby
Show all 20 cast
- Dick Haynesas Bartender
- Bill Catchingas Brawler at Emma's (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- United Artists considered Support Your Local Sheriff! a "bomb" and threatened to pull it after a weak first week, so James Garner challenged the studio to match his own $10,000 stake to keep it in one theater for a week. Word of mouth then filled the theater.
- During preproduction, Paramount Pictures threatened to sue, claiming the film's first scene was "lifted" from its Paint Your Wagon, which features a similar gold mine discovery. Garner showed where the original screenplay found its source material, and Paramount dropped the lawsuit.
- Bill Bowers sold his original script to James Garner for $150,000 plus a percentage of the profits, and when Bowers wanted to direct it, Garner talked him out of it, saying he had made five bad pictures in a row and would be scared to work with a new director.
- Support Your Local Sheriff! was the first producing effort by James Garner and his Cherokee Productions, and it was completed on a shoestring budget of $750,000.
