The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw **½ (1958, Kenneth More, Jayne Mansfield, Robert Morley) – Classic Movie Review 6348

Director Raoul Walsh’s 1958 British paella Western packs in a lot of easy-going silly comedy fun from Jayne Mansfield as the buxom, pistol-packing blonde Kate, and Kenneth More as Jonathan Tibbs, the pistol-maker from England travelling in the American West. Based on a short story by Jacob Hay, it is shot in England and Spain.

English gentleman Tibbs has never fired a gun, but stops an Indian attack on his stagecoach, and is tricked into being appointed town sheriff of nearby Fractured Jaw, becoming a legend of the Old West.

Pleasant it may be, but what is the great Hollywood director Walsh doing directing this nonsense? It is just as well he is because it might have been even slacker with some British comedy director.

The advertisements said ‘You can’t imagine anything funnier than The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw’, but then again, perhaps you can. However, More, Mansfield and Morley give game, likeable performances and are up for a laugh. All three play on their well-known caricature images.

The cast includes Sidney James, soon to be the star of his own British Western comedy, Carry On Cowboy (1966).

Also in the cast are Robert Morley as Uncle Lucius, Ronald Squire, David Horne, Henry Hull, Bruce Cabot, Eynon Evans, William Campbell, Donald Stewart, Reed De Rouen, Clancy Cooper, Charles Irwin, Gordon Tanner and Charles Farrell.

It is written by Howard Dimsdale (using the pseudonym of Arthur Dales), shot in CinemaScope widescreen ad DeLuxe colour by Otto Heller, produced for 20th Century Fox by Daniel M Angel and scored by Robert Farnon.

Connie Francis sings the theme song ‘In the Valley of Love’.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6348

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