Our month-long look at rather odd Westerns concludes this coming Thursday and Friday with the following films.
Thursday, July 27 @ 7:30pm
“Destry Rides Again!” (Universal, 1939)
Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart ride high in this superb comedic western, both a boisterous spoof and a shining example of its genre. As the brawling, rough-and-tumble saloon singer Frenchy, Dietrich shed her exotic love-goddess image and launched a triumphant career comeback, while Stewart cemented his amiable everyman persona with a charming turn as a gun-abhorring deputy sheriff who uses his wits to bring law and order to the frontier town of Bottleneck. (Black & white, 95 minutes.)
Friday, July 28 @ 7:30pm
“Blazing Saddles” (Warner Bros., 1974)
Mel Brooks’ classic send-up of Hollywood westerns finds a railroad slated to be diverted through an existing town and a crooked Attorney General forcing a dimwitted governor to appoint an African-American sheriff to horrify the townsfolk, who all have the same last name. What happens next is quite unexpected. Directed by Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein”) and written, in part, by comedy legend Richard Pryor, this film has had audiences rolling in the aisles for almost 50 years. Starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn (playing off of Marlene Dietrich in the previous night’s film). “This is the funniest film ever made!”—Mel Brooks. (Color, 93 minutes.)
For more information on LC screenings, see this link.