James Garner is at his charming best in Support Your Local Sheriff! Jason (Garner) rides into a small gold rush town, which we see spring up through the opening credits after Prudy (Joan Hackett) and her father, Olly Perkins (Harry Morgan) discover gold partway through a funeral – and that should tell you all you need to know about the sense of humour at play in this one.

And there is a lot of it, and it is a lot of fun!

The town needs a new sheriff, it seems two have been killed on the job, and one of them may have simply died on the job. Jason tells Perkins who serves as town mayor that he’ll take the job part-time, he wants to do some gold-digging himself, and then move on to Australia.

The pay isn’t great considering how much things cost in town, but he gets room and board with Perkins, which makes for a lot of goofy and delightful interactions with Prudy, and some wonderful banter and one-liners.

He’s barely in town for fifteen minutes when he’s already made an arrest for murder, and gotten himself a deputy. The murderer is Joe Danby (Bruce Dern) a cruel man who killed a man during a card game, and whose father, Pa Danby (Walter Brennan) is holding the town hostage by charging them access to the gold mine on the other side of the valley – he owns all the land between the town and the mine, they can either pay him 20% or he’ll rob the coaches of all of it.

Once arrested, in a cell with no bars, Joe awaits the multiple escape attempts his family organize, and the new deputy, Jake (the iconic Jack Elam) starts to find his confidence as he goes from town goof, and brawler to a man of some respect, and is afforded the occasional fourth-wall break, especially at the end.

Jason wanders about town enforcing the law, being incredibly charming and funny at the same time. Garner knows how to play the humour in the situation, while still being true to his character.

Of course, the romance blossoms between Jason and Prudy even as he cleans up the town, sometimes literally with a fire hose, and puts an end to the problem of the Danbys.

I was absolutely delighted watching this one, it’s funny, plays with some Western tropes without completely subverting them, and lets Garner’s charm shine through in every scene he plays in. Jason has a confidence and style that now, decades later, I would love to emulate.

The film did well enough to garner a spiritual sequel, Support Your Local Gunfighter, which featured some of the same cast in different roles, and you know I’m going to have to check that one out soon.

Garner is just so wonderful to watch.