Destry Rides Again (film)
"Destry Rides Again" is a 1940 Western film directed by George Marshall, featuring a blend of comedy and morality set against the backdrop of a lawless frontier town. The story revolves around Tom Destry, Jr. (played by James Stewart), who is called to serve as deputy in the corrupt town of Bottleneck after the sheriff mysteriously disappears. The town is dominated by a corrupt mayor, a deceitful saloon owner, and the saloon chanteuse Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich), who navigates a complex role as both an ally and adversary to Destry.
Destry, known for his pacifism and marked by his father's gunfighter legacy, investigates the corruption, ultimately leading to a confrontation with the town’s leaders. The film addresses themes of justice and identity, reflecting historical contexts such as Prohibition and the challenges of the Great Depression. The climax involves Destry taking up his father's guns to rally the townsfolk against the oppressive forces, culminating in a dramatic showdown. Ultimately, "Destry Rides Again" explores the transformation of Destry from a nonviolent figure to a respected sheriff, delivering a narrative that intertwines personal redemption and a quest for justice in a diverse community.
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Destry Rides Again (film)
Identification Film about a pacifist lawman and saloon chanteuse who clean up a corrupt Western town
Director George Marshall
Date Released December 29, 1939
Destry Rides Again casts much of the world of the 1930’s—Prohibition and its repeal, farm foreclosures, American isolationism—into the setting of a Wild West town in need of law and order.
In Destry Rides Again, director George Marshall and his screenwriters take three Western staples—the lawless frontier town, the gunfighter sick of guns, and the tough but golden-hearted saloon girl—and transform them into a comic morality play of American identity. The town of Bottleneck is run by a corrupt mayor and judge and a saloon owner and cardsharp, aided and abetted by saloon chanteuse Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich). The sheriff takes a sudden and permanent leave, leading the deputy to call in Tom Destry, Jr., played by James Stewart, to serve as deputy of the town that his father once served as sheriff before he was shot in the back.
The mocked, gunless, but crack shot, Destry, investigating the disappearance of the previous sheriff and the landgrab schemes of the mayor and saloon owner, is alternately opposed and assisted by Frenchy, who is as eager a catfighter as he is a reluctant gunfighter. As Destry begins pinning the murders and landgrabs on the town’s corrupt leaders, his father’s old deputy is shot in the back. Destry, strapping on his father’s six-guns, organizes townsmen to storm the barricaded saloon, while Frenchy organizes the women into a Carry Nation-style saloon-smashing mob. The forces of justice prevail, but Frenchy takes a bullet intended for Destry, leaving Destry—now the respected sheriff—available to marry the “good” girl.
Impact
While the drinking and saloon-smashing scenes echo Prohibition’s vexed history, the landgrab schemes—locals swindled out of their ranches through crooked card games—are a nod to Depression-era farm foreclosures. Destry’s initial pacifism, in a town where characters are identified as Russian, Chinese, French, and German (“Frenchy” is in fact German), points to American isolationism amid a worsening world situation and the need for a strong sheriff to strap on his guns.
Bibliography
Coyne, Michael. The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Lackmann, Ron. Women of the Western Frontier in Fact, Fiction, and Film. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997.
Rollins, Peter C., and John E. O’Connor, eds. Hollywood’s West: The American Frontier in Film, Television, and History. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005.