"The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox" came out in 1976, a year after Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles". If "Blazing Saddles" is a spoof Western- probably the best-known one- then I would categorise "The Duchess..." as a comedy Western. The difference is that a spoof Western deliberately sets out to parody or satirise the conventions of the genre, whereas a comedy Western is merely a comedy set in the Old West without the same element of satire. The distinction is not, however, a hard-and-fast one, and "The Duchess..." does contain some scenes which seem to parody Western conventions; the stagecoach journey, for example, was clearly inspired by similar scenes in serious Westerns such as "Stagecoach" or "Hombre".
The story is set in the 1880s. Charlie Malloy, aka "the Dirtwater Fox", is a professional San Francisco gambler and card-sharp. Amanda Quaid, aka "Bluebird", is a prostitute and dance hall entertainer. (For the sake of convenience I will refer to her as "Amanda" in this review, even though this name and the surname Quaid only appear in the cast list and are never actually used in the dialogue). She acquires the alternative nickname "The Duchess" when she poses as an English aristocrat as part of a scheme to obtain a job as governess to the children of a wealthy Mormon family. (The joke is that the American-born Amanda spends a lot of time pretending to be British- she even performs her music hall act in a faux-Cockney accent- but has never been to Britain and does not know much about the country. If she did she would realise how unlikely it would be for a British Duchess, drawn from the top rank of the aristocracy, to be offering her services as a governess in San Francisco. Fortunately for her, her prospective employer is no more knowledgeable about the British class system than she is).
The plot is a fairly complicated one, and I will not set out a full synopsis. It revolves around a satchel of money which Charlie has stolen from the Bloodworth Gang, a band of bank robbers, and which is then stolen from him by Amanda. Eventually the two are forced to team up in order to outwit the ruthless Bloodworth Gang, a process which inevitably ends with their falling in love.
The stars of the film are Goldie Hawn and George Segal, both practised comedy veterans, and both are in good form here. Especially Goldie. She hasn't been able to save every comedy she has been in- the dreadful "Protocol" is an example of one of her failures- but she has had more hits than misses, and here she brings enough of her brand of mock innocence and cheeky charm to her part to persuade us to overlook Amanda's sleazy past. The script is, for the most part, not as sharp as that of "Blazing Saddles", but it is generally amusing enough, and there are occasionally some very funny scenes. (I liked the one where Charlie and Amanda converse in that strange mixture of foreign languages). I have ended up giving the two films the same mark, largely because Brooks's otherwise strong film is let down by a weak ending. 7/10.
The story is set in the 1880s. Charlie Malloy, aka "the Dirtwater Fox", is a professional San Francisco gambler and card-sharp. Amanda Quaid, aka "Bluebird", is a prostitute and dance hall entertainer. (For the sake of convenience I will refer to her as "Amanda" in this review, even though this name and the surname Quaid only appear in the cast list and are never actually used in the dialogue). She acquires the alternative nickname "The Duchess" when she poses as an English aristocrat as part of a scheme to obtain a job as governess to the children of a wealthy Mormon family. (The joke is that the American-born Amanda spends a lot of time pretending to be British- she even performs her music hall act in a faux-Cockney accent- but has never been to Britain and does not know much about the country. If she did she would realise how unlikely it would be for a British Duchess, drawn from the top rank of the aristocracy, to be offering her services as a governess in San Francisco. Fortunately for her, her prospective employer is no more knowledgeable about the British class system than she is).
The plot is a fairly complicated one, and I will not set out a full synopsis. It revolves around a satchel of money which Charlie has stolen from the Bloodworth Gang, a band of bank robbers, and which is then stolen from him by Amanda. Eventually the two are forced to team up in order to outwit the ruthless Bloodworth Gang, a process which inevitably ends with their falling in love.
The stars of the film are Goldie Hawn and George Segal, both practised comedy veterans, and both are in good form here. Especially Goldie. She hasn't been able to save every comedy she has been in- the dreadful "Protocol" is an example of one of her failures- but she has had more hits than misses, and here she brings enough of her brand of mock innocence and cheeky charm to her part to persuade us to overlook Amanda's sleazy past. The script is, for the most part, not as sharp as that of "Blazing Saddles", but it is generally amusing enough, and there are occasionally some very funny scenes. (I liked the one where Charlie and Amanda converse in that strange mixture of foreign languages). I have ended up giving the two films the same mark, largely because Brooks's otherwise strong film is let down by a weak ending. 7/10.