Thanks for the memories!

Crappy film

As Good As It Gets

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Western comedy about an aging cowboy (James Stewart) whose brother dies and leaves him a brothel. So he and his friend (Henry Fonda) go visit the place and get involved with the girls who work there and wind up defending them from local riffraff. Another of those '60s westerns with stars from Hollywood's Golden Age playing characters that are a little dirty. Just a little, though. It's still pretty tame by today's standards. Not a dick joke to be had. Ultimately, it's harmless fluff with enjoyable performances from Stewart and Fonda.

After James Stewart and Henry Fonda appeared together in a Western called "Firecreek" (1968), it was wisely decided that the two old friends should be paired together in another Western, only this time they would actually play off of their real-life friendship. Written by James Lee Barrett and directed by - of all people - Gene Kelly, this project would be titled "The Cheyenne Social Club." John O'Hanlan (Stewart) and Harley Sullivan (Fonda) are two Texas wranglers, the former soon learning that he has inherited a place from his deceased brother known as the Cheyenne Social Club. Not knowing what kind of establishment it is, the two old cowpokes decide to make the thousand-mile trek northbound. Soon enough, they find out exactly what kind of place this "social club" is.Two highlights: Probably the funniest scene in the whole piece occurs near the beginning when Harley chatters endlessly during the opening credits as he and John ride to Cheyenne; John finally gets a word in edgewise after they've travelled their thousand miles. And when John learns that Pauline (Elaine Devry) supposedly has a bad liver, he walks into her room and gives her some money so that she may see a doctor; Pauline, however, thinks that this money is meant for a little something else.The making of "The Cheyenne Social Club" was not a most pleasant experience. Henry Fonda reportedly didn't want to do the picture at all, trying to get Jack Elam to replace him; certainly, Jack Elam is a wonderful actor (one of my favorite Western bad guys, in fact), but no doubt this film would have been quite different had Elam stepped into the role of Harley Sullivan. As for James Stewart, he was suffering two major losses. First, he could scarcely be expected to recover from the recent death of his stepson Ronald McLean, who was active in the Vietnam War. Second, the horse that Stewart rode in every one of his Westerns for twenty-some years, named Pie, was too ill for Stewart to ride in this Western; Pie died shortly after filming wrapped. Fonda, Gene Kelly, and some of the other crew were well aware of Stewart's sadness on the set and apparently tried to help him out as best they could; Fonda even pleasantly surprised Stewart by presenting him with a watercolor painting that he did of Pie.

One feature of "The Cheyanne Social Club"; it marks the 3rd (count'em third) time that James Stewart "killed" career bad guy Robert J. Wilke on screen He had already gunned him down in "The Far Country", and in "Night Passage". In this movie, Wilke, a much better gunman, braces Stewart in a crowded saloon. Stewart's pal, Henry Fonda, is noshing on pecans while watching the action. Fonda squeezes two pecans together to crack them; Wilke thinks he hears a pistol being cocked, so he draws his gun and points in Fonda's direction. Seeing no threat there, Wilke tries to recover, but by this time Stewart has cleared leather, and he blows Wilke away, thus becoming a hero. Shades of Liberty Valence!This movie was directed by Gene Kelly, and this scene was played for slapstick comedy. Robert J. Wilke was killed many times on screen, by a Who's Who list of Hollywood elite. (Heck, even Grace Kelly snuffed him in "High Noon"!) This was quite likely the only time his demise was played for laughs.In an enjoyable movie, this was one of the outstanding moments. Enjoy it when you get a chance. And there's one quote worth remembering: Stewart to Fonda: "Harley, It just occurs to me that you've been talking for fourteen hundred miles!"Flickerfan

My lasting memory from seeing this film in a large screen theater in 1970 is the opening scene: Fonda and Stewart at work on a snowy range with other cowboys before Stewart gets notified of his inheritance. I don't think the film made much money upon initial release, but when it was shown on US network television in the late seventies, it was the number one telecast for the week. Back in those pre multi cable days, I'm sure some grasping producer (Glenn Larson type) was contemplating a pilot for a few weeks.