Rating: NR
Genre:
Western
Release Date: 09/06/2005
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 90 min
Distributor/Studio: Paramount
On paper,
Red Garters sounds like a wonderful idea: a raucous spoof of
westerns, done up in the stylized fashion of a Broadway
musical.
Rosemary Clooney and
Guy Mitchell, both popular recording stars of the era, head the cast as Calaveras Kate and Reb Randall, while
Jack Carson is on hand as wheeler-dealer frontier lawyer Jason Carberry. The plot, which hardly matters, concerns Reb Randall's efforts to find out who was responsible for his brother's death. The film's basic joke is that none of the traditional western cliches come to fruition: the bad guys outdraw the good guys, the damsel-in-distress isn't rescued in the nick of time, and so on. Also, this may well be the first sagebrush satire in which the male characters doff their hats respectfully when mentioning "The Code of the West" (it certainly wasn' t the last!) To emphasize the unreality of the entire project, the backgrounds are designed impressionistically, like an animated cartoon.
Red Garters might have worked better as the closing production number on a TV variety program than a 91-minute feature film; even so, everyone involved (especially tunesmiths
Jay Livingston and
Ray Evans) deserves credit for trying something different.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide