Gary Cooper is Melody Jones, a good-natured casual drift, and his sidekick is grouchy and cynical William Demarest. They ride into a Western town and Cooper is mistaken for Monte Jarred (Dan Duryea), the notorious bandit and gunslinger, and Demarest for his companion. The good folk of the town know that Duryea is headed their way, and they back off, right scared to death, when they spot Cooper.
Cooper knows nothing of this but, seeing the respect he's paid, assumed a constantly threatening demeanor, most consisting of lowering his right eyelid, and comes to believe he's finally being shown the respect he has earned, although he's a nobody. The irony, of course, is that Cooper can't handle a weapon without dropping it or suffering an accidental discharge.
There were a lot of Westerns on the screen at the time and this must have seemed like a clever twist on the formula. The meme was persistent. Bob Hope made "Alias Jesse James" a few years later.
But that irony is about where the cleverness ends. The mistaken identity is grafted onto a Grade B plot about the hidden loot from a hold up, Loretta Young being torn between hot shot Duryea and modest Cooper. There aren't any hilarious scenes. The comedy is in the situation itself, and it's a little bland after the first fifteen minutes.
Cooper isn't called on to do much acting but he's such a likable guy and sits a horse with such familiarity that he brings something to the role. William Demarest repeats the parts he played earlier for Preston Sturges. Loretta Young is pretty but just another device. Duryea was always good at being mean. He'd been ecstatically mean in two of Fritz Lang's movies, "Woman in the Window" and "Scarlet Street." He treats Loretta Young here the way he treated the women there, only without slapping her around so much.
A genial and somewhat wimpy comedy, diverting, but no more than that.
Cooper knows nothing of this but, seeing the respect he's paid, assumed a constantly threatening demeanor, most consisting of lowering his right eyelid, and comes to believe he's finally being shown the respect he has earned, although he's a nobody. The irony, of course, is that Cooper can't handle a weapon without dropping it or suffering an accidental discharge.
There were a lot of Westerns on the screen at the time and this must have seemed like a clever twist on the formula. The meme was persistent. Bob Hope made "Alias Jesse James" a few years later.
But that irony is about where the cleverness ends. The mistaken identity is grafted onto a Grade B plot about the hidden loot from a hold up, Loretta Young being torn between hot shot Duryea and modest Cooper. There aren't any hilarious scenes. The comedy is in the situation itself, and it's a little bland after the first fifteen minutes.
Cooper isn't called on to do much acting but he's such a likable guy and sits a horse with such familiarity that he brings something to the role. William Demarest repeats the parts he played earlier for Preston Sturges. Loretta Young is pretty but just another device. Duryea was always good at being mean. He'd been ecstatically mean in two of Fritz Lang's movies, "Woman in the Window" and "Scarlet Street." He treats Loretta Young here the way he treated the women there, only without slapping her around so much.
A genial and somewhat wimpy comedy, diverting, but no more than that.