The Shakiest Gun in the West is a 1968 comedy western film starring Don Knotts. The movie was directed by Alan Rafkin and written by Jim Frtizell and Everett Greenbaum. The film has a runtime of 101 minutes and is unrated.
Plot Summary
Jesse W. Haywood (Knotts) graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist. As a “city slicker“, he finds himself bungling in an odd new environment.
On his way west the stagecoach he is travelling on is held up and robbed by two masked bandits. A posse sets out to capture the bandits and catches one of them, Penelope “Bad Penny” Cushing (Rhoades).
Held by the sheriff and facing prison as a convicted stagecoach robber, Penelope is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers that also involves a local Indian tribe. She tricks Haywood into a sham marriage as a disguise.
Haywood unintentionally and inadvertently becomes the legendary “Doc the Haywood” after he guns down “Arnold the Kid” and performs other exploits (all with covert assistance from Penny).
The film is a remake of The Paleface, a 1948 movie starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.
Cast
- Don Knotts …. Dr. Jesse W. Heywood
- Barbara Rhoades …. Penelope ‘Bad Penny’ Cushings
- Jackie Coogan …. Matthew Basch
- Burt Mustin …. Old Artimus
- Don ‘Red’ Barry …. Rev. Zachary Gant (as Donald Barry)
- Ruth McDevitt …. Olive
- Frank McGrath …. Mr. Remington
- Terry Wilson …. Welsh
- Carl Ballantine …. Abel Swanson
