Destry Rides Again · reception & legacy
1939 · George Marshall
How Destry Rides Again has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A smash in Hollywood's legendary class of 1939, it single-handedly rescued Marlene Dietrich from her 'box office poison' label — and while it's since been overshadowed by that year's giants, it's now cherished as the comedy-Western that basically invented the genre spoof.
What's debated
The perennial fan squabble: is this Dietrich's movie or Stewart's — and is it a real Western or an affectionate send-up of one?
Its footprint
Dietrich belting 'See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have' became one of her signature numbers, and the whole film is lovingly parodied in Blazing Saddles, where Madeline Kahn's Lili von Shtupp is a direct riff on Dietrich's saloon chanteuse Frenchy.
Where it stands
A National Film Registry pick and a classic-Hollywood comfort watch — the 1939 title cinephiles love to champion when everyone else is talking about the obvious ones.