The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968)

My Review

Don Knotts is his usual nervous self in “The Shakiest Gun in the West.” Director Alan Rifkin (“The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” 1966) expertly assembled this Western comedy which is essentially a Don Knotts vehicle. The screenplay was written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, based on the 1948 film “The Paleface” starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.

Like Hope, Knotts plays a bumbling Philadelphia dentist who travels west to set up a practice on the frontier. The talented supporting cast includes Barbara Rhoades, Jackie Coogan, Ruth McDevitt, Carl Ballantine, Pat Morita, Dub Taylor, Don Barry, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson, and Edward Faulkner as Marshall Huggins.

The watchable and entertaining laugh-fest “The Shakiest Gun in the West”vwas a hit at the box office for Universal Pictures. It was filmed in Technicolor on the Universal Studios Backlot.