Written and directed by Hugh Wilson (Police Academy), Rustlers’ Rhapsody (1985) is filled with gags, jokes, and subtle ten-gallon hat tips to the B westerns of the ’30s and ’40s. This fun, witty send-up of those singing cowboy pictures of a bygone era stars Tom Berenger, G. W. Bailey, Marilu Henner, and Andy Griffith. Wilson pokes at everything from the fancy, out-of-place hero outfits and the ridiculousness of the heavies to the town madam who only talks dirty to her clients but nothing more. Wilson also cleverly exposes the common plot holes and impossible situations in those old oaters. More than a simple spoof, Wilson honestly loves that genre and his jokes don’t ridicule or belittle those old movies or the heroes that influenced generations.
Buy Rustlers’ Rhapsody Blu-rayStraight-shooting, white-hat-wearing, good-guy Rex O’Herlihan (Berenger) wanders into a nondescript western town, like he has many times before, and right into a range war between the local cattle-baron Colonel Ticonderoga (Griffith) and the sheepmen. Over a stiff drink, Peter (Bailey), the town drunk, who will become Rex’s loyal sidekick, breaks down the situation for Rex and introduces him to the town’s sultry, top prostitute Miss Tracy (Henner), who “has a heart of gold” and instantly takes a shine to Rex. It isn’t long before they are interrupted by the baddies sent by Colonel Ticonderoga to harass the sheepmen. Rex must intervene on the side of the unarmed sheepmen; he simply must. This leads to gun play where the captain of the black hats is accidentally shot and killed by his own men after Rex shoots the gun out of his hand.
Rex is deep in the sheep dip now as Colonel Ticonderoga seeks to “take care of” him once and for all, especially after learning his own daughter (Sela Ward) has been cavorting with the sexually ambivalent do-gooder. Things get really kooky when an exasperated Ticonderoga decides to seek help by uniting with the Spaghetti Western Railroad Colonel (Fernando Rey), whose heavies come complete with black frock coats. After Rex befuddles them both, they must think outside the box to finally do away with Rex. So what do the Colonels do? They send for a rival white-hatted, good guy named Bob Barber (Patrick Wayne) to stand down Rex and call into question not only his virtues but his sexuality. But how much of a goody-two-shoes can this stoic hired gun really be? We can only find out who has the purest of hearts after a high-noon showdown.
After the success of writing Police Academy, Wilson, who also wrote and created the hit TV show WKRP in Cincinnati, chose to write and direct his passion project Rustlers’ Rhapsody. Wilson was a big fan of the B Westerns he watched as a kid and it shows in this loving comic homage to the good guys in white hats. The more familiar with the source material one is the funnier the gags are, like Berenger’s dubbed crooning a la John Wayne’s Singin’ Sandy in Riders of Destiny and Bailey’s Smiley Burnette sidekick costume (complete with tablecloth red and white checkerboard shirt and goofy turned-up hat brim).
Rustlers’ Rhapsody strays from its initial concept of putting one of those singing cowboys in the real West (a la Back to the Future Part 3 and its characters) or in a modern setting (kind of like Gene Autry fighting Nazis) to being a self aware/meta comedy where all the characters seem to know they are in a silly, kiddie type western. The cast does a fine job in their various tongue-in-cheek roles, Berenger plays it straight (zing!) as the sexually awkward dandy of a hero, never hamming it up or making Rex look like a complete fool. Andy Griffith’s silliness shines as the closeted-gay, cattle baron who tries to hide his feminine side. G. W. Bailey’s physical comedy is funny as he stumbles along and narrates the action as town drunk and sidekick. The ever-stunning Marilu Henner drew a lot of flack for her performance but she does what she can as the cartoonish madame, dominating her scenes with a seeming to wink and nod at the audience.
At times, Rustlers’ Rhapsody seems a little unorganized and messy like it was cut down to an 88-minute runtime at the expense of some plot points lost in post-production editing. Although that very well might have been Wilson’s intent as those 60-minute sagebrush yarns didn’t always make the most sense storywise and had plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon. Speaking of grand locals, Wilson was able to film in Spain using the long abandoned sets built for The Man with No Name trilogy. Those town sets along with the surrounding landscape provided Wilson and his cinematographer with some great backdrops to set up shots that rival those more epic western sagas.
Kino Lorber’s sole Blu-ray Special Features is an audio commentary by writer/filmmaker Max Allan Collins and film historian/podcast host Heath Holland. Both are very knowledgeable about the cowboy genre and provide as much information as they can in regard to the making of the movie. Neither could locate a script or a shooting schedule and there’s no indication that the cast or crew were asked for interviews and sadly Wilson passed away in 2018. They do really well pointing out the various tropes spoofed and played with throughout the movie as well as discussing all the influential cowboy heroes. They ponder the “what ifs” and “could have beens” had the movie taken a different approach to its storytelling as hinted at in the beginning of the picture.
A couple very interesting points the pair speak about are the fact that Wayne’s Singin’ Sandy actually appeared before Gene and Roy but Wayne gave up the schtick because he couldn’t actually carry a tune. I also found it very interesting that the original choice to play Rex was older actor George Gaynes (TV’s Punky Brewster‘s foster parent), which would have totally changed the vibe of the movie by having a more father-like figure as the hero. What an older gent would have also played at is that head-scrathing element where the clearly older man always scores the much younger gal.
Rustlers’ Rhapsody stands tall in the saddle as a loving tribute to the western genre that Hugh Wilson cherished and many others still treasure. It’s not Blazing Saddles and it’s not supposed to be though it clearly helped pave the way for other wacky western comedies like The Three Amigos and Back to the Future Part 3. It also gives us another reason to revisit those classic B Westerns and heroes of old like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, and even John Wayne as Singin’ Sandy. The movie even closes out with “Last of the Silver Screen Cowboys” sung by Rex Allen Jr. to further remind us of those Stetson-clad legends.
