Basically, this is an entertaining western that sports a combination of suspense, action, romance and comedy. It also features an interesting cast, with names like Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest and Dan Duryea.

Cooper, as "Melody Jones," plays his normal low-key hero role and Demarest provides most of the laughs. Young is attractive and plays an intriguing character and Duyea does what he does best: play the villain. However, the latter has a smaller role than usual.

This is corny in spots, but it was meant to be since this is supposed to be a spoof of westerns. The only thing that didn't come off well was the special-specials, but they weren't much back in the days of this film but they are very dated now.

A nice, lightweight enjoyable satire.

While people remember a good majority of the John Ford westerns of the 1940's, the more obscure ones like this are not quite forgotten but not nearly as famous. Yes, it is excellent, and stands the test of time as one of the greatest westerns of Hollywood's Golden Age. Gary Cooper plays his usual innocent minded cowboy, but he is so endearing, that you can't wait for him to begin to break into his little recurring ditty over and over again. This is an even better performance for Loretta Young than her Oscar-winning one as "The Farmer's Daughter" two years later. William Demarest isn't as grizzled as other western sidekicks, just loveable grumpy, and is very good, starting office wisecracking and crotchety, but gaining the audience's sympathy and concern. Dan Duryea is a great villain, showing that you can break out of film Noir into another genre and be equally as menacing.

This is the story of mistaken identity, with young initially using Cooper to distract the law so her lover, Duryea, can escape, but she instantly regrets that when he threatens her. That causes her to fall in love with Cooper, and she ends up going out of her way to save his life both from the law after him and from Duryea as well.

Superb photography utilizes shadows in a beautiful way, and the melody that Jones sings ends up being a profound theme for the film's score. The film cleverly utilizes action, comedy and action in a way that will keep you completely engrossed. I give young credit for the best performance because this is one of the few films where she isn't so noble that you fear butter will not melt in her mouth. Produced by Cooper, this shows him off at his best, and deserves to be ranked among the great classic westerns of all time.

While this film is far from great, I appreciated how at least those who made the film tried to make something different than the usual insipid Western. While I love a well-made Western, I think most Hollywood Westerns of the 30s, 40s and 50s were incredibly formulaic and routine. As a result, I usually avoid them like the plague! So I was very, very happy to stumble upon this film since it is far from typical of the genre.

Gary Cooper and his buddy, William Demarest wander into a small town and Cooper is mistaken for a desperado who just robbed the stage coach. Instead of apprehending him, everyone is so afraid and treat him royally! However, Loretta Young quickly comes up and whisks them out of town. She knows that they are not the robbers and gets them out before they accidentally get shot! She knows, by the way, because the REAL robber is her boyfriend! Well, instead of continuing to explain the plot, I'll leave this up to you. Bowever the film is excellent due to very good acting by all the stars. Cooper and Young are wonderful and that's no surprise, and Dan Duryea is a great slimy villain (as usual),but the stand-out performance for me was Demarest. Instead of the usual idiotic supporting character he usually played in the 30s and 40s (especially in Preston Sturgess films),his supporting role was pretty serious and he effectively played a slightly older tough cowboy, so he was effective without being overly comical--I liked that.

See this film if you want something different AND has decent production values. While not a great film, it is very entertaining and fun--though not exactly a comedy like the videotape jacket said it was.