Produced by Joe Pasternak. Directed by George Marshall. Based on the novel by Max Brand. Screenplay by Felix Jackson, Gertrude Purcell and Henry Myers. Photography by Hal Mohr. Edited by Milton Carruth. Songs: “Little Joe the Wrangler”, “You’ve Got That Look That Leaves Me Weak” and “See What the Boys in the Back Room (Will Have” by Frank Loesser and Frederick Hollander. Assistant Director: Vernon Keays. Remake of “Destry Rides Again” (1932) and remade as “Frenchie” (1950) and “Destry” (1954) 94 min.

Cast: Marlene Dietrich (Frenchy), James Stewart (Tom Destry), Mischa Auer (Boris), Charles Winninger (Washington Dimsdale), Brian Donlevy (Kent), Allen Jenkins (Gyp Watson), Warren Hymer (Bugs Watson), Irene Hervey (Janice Tyndall), Una Merkel (Lily Belle), Tom Fadden (Lem Claggett), Samuel S. Hinds (Judge Slade), Lillian Yarbo (Clara), Edmund MacDonald (Rockwell), Billy Gilbert (Loupgerou), Virginia Brissac (Sophie Claggett), Ann Todd (Claggett Girl), Dickie Jones (Eli Whitney Claggett), Jack Carson (Jack Tyndall), Carmen D’Antonio (Dancer), Joe King (Sheriff Keogh), Harry Cording (Rowdy), Dick Alexander (Cowboy), Minerva Urecal (Mrs. DeWitt), Bob McKenzie (Doctor), Billy Bletcher (Pianist), Lloyd Ingraham (Turner, Express Agent), Bill Cody, Jr. (Small Boy), Loren Brown, Harold DeGarro (Jugglers), Bill Steele Gettinger (Cowboy), Harry Tenbrook (Stage Rider), Bud McClure (Stage Driver), Alex Voloshin (Assistant Bartender), Chief John Big Tree (Indian).

By 1939, the career of Marlene Dietrich was in questionable straits along with those of Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford. The three leading actresses of the early 1930s, who had prospered so greatly, were now being labeled as “box-office poison” by publicists and trade magazines because of poor audience reception on their more recent pictures. As a result, Hepburn retreated to the Broadway stage while Crawford labored sadly in films like “The Bride Wore Red” (1937) and the sublimely ridiculous “The Ice Follies of 1939”. Dietrich, on the other hand, was let go by Paramount Pictures, the studio that made her a household name, to perhaps retire from the screen permanently.

Then, out of nowhere, Universal producer Joe Pasternak, offered Miss Dietrich a starring role in yet another remake of the Max Brand story “Destry”, which the studio had filmed before in 1932 with Tom Mix. Hired at a considerably lower salary, Dietrich delved into her role as Frenchy, the hot-headed saloon entertainer, with relish, displaying her knack for comedy with elan. James Stewart, who had been a contract player for MGM since 1935, was borrowed by Universal to portray the pacifist sheriff Tom Destry. This was to be his first western, which was a genre that he later became heavily associated with in films like “Winchester ‘73” (1959), “Broken Arrow” (1950), “The Naked Spur” (1953), “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) and “Shenandoah” (1965). Up until this point, his home studio sadly wasted his extraordinary talents on lackluster roles such as in “After the Thin Man” (1936) where he made movie history in his only murderous role. Other films included “The Shopworn Angel” (1938) a dreary remake of a truly shopworn scenario and the aforementioned “The Ice Follies of 1939” (Can you picture both Joan Crawford and James Stewart on ice skates?). Amazingly, Mr. Stewart found his niche away from MGM on loan-out, where his biggest successes included Frank Capra’s “You Can’t Take It With You” (1938) and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939), both at Columbia and DESTRY RIDES AGAIN. By the time the latter was in production, the western genre was suffering badly throughout the industry. Although there were some landmark westerns made in the 1930s such as “Cimarron” (1931) and “The Plainsman” (1937), audiences had all but totally lost interest in stories involving the old west. Consequently, studios kept the genre alive by releasing various series of ‘B’ westerns starring favorites like Gene Autry, William (Hopalong Cassidy) Boyd, George O’Brien and Tim Holt in action-packed low budgeted programmers. By 1939, things began to change with the release of 20th Century Fox’s Technicolor western “Jesse James”, which was so successful that other studios began filming big-budgeted horse operas such as “Stagecoach”, “Dodge City” and “The Oklahoma Kid” (all 1939).

The director for DESTRY RIDES AGAIN was George Marshall, a veteran of short subjects starring Laurel and Hardy before he began tackling more ambitious feature length comedies starring W.C. Fields, Bob Hope and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. He proved to be the perfect choice for this wonderful comedy western to which he brought some of the best comic actors in the business like Allen Jenkins, Charles Winninger and Billy Gilbert into one film and let them shine! But, out of all these wonderful talents, the one person who stood out among all was Miss Dietrich. Insisting on doing all of her own stunts, particularly in the famous barroom brawl scene, which took a grueling five days to film, Miss Dietrich and screen nemesis Una Merkel both came out badly bruised and battered (the fight took up all of two minutes worth of screen time).

When the picture was finally edited and previewed for audience consumption, the Breen Office (the Production Censorship Code) objected to one line of dialogue at the beginning of the picture following the crooked poker game where Kent (Brian Donlevy) fleeces poor old Lem Claggett (Tom Fadden). After Frenchy slips a few gold coins into her bosom, Allen Jenkins had quipped “Now, thar’s gold in them thar hills”, a line which was eliminated from the final cut. The late great film critic Bosley Crowther raved, “It was a masterpiece of underplaying in a deliberately sardonic vein – the freshest, most offbeat characterization that this popular actor (James Stewart) ever played. It was, in my mind, even better than the rampant young senator in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Another critic quipped, “I think it was Lord Beaverbrook who said that Marlene Dietrich standing on a bar in black net stockings (sic), belting out See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have, was a greater work of art than the Venus de Milo.” The film eventually restored Miss Dietrich’s career and she signed a three year non-exclusive contract with Universal Pictures while DESTRY RIDES AGAIN was another huge personal success for James Stewart, whose meteoric climb to superstardom was imminent!