Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County

The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County is a Western comedy film released in April 1970 for Universal Pictures and directed by Anton Leader. The film stars Dan Blocker, Nanette Fabray, Jim Backus, Mickey Rooney, and Jack Elam.

The film became Blocker's final role (besides his long-running role as "Hoss Cartwright" on Bonanza) before his premature death from complications arising from gall bladder surgery in May 1972. In late 2010 the Encore Westerns channel began showing this film intermittently on their schedule [Source at Examiner.com: "Bonanza Fans Can Now Enjoy Dan Blocker In a Different Role"].

Synopsis

In the film, a simple-minded blacksmith named Charley, well-loved by the townsfolk, saves for a year to send off for a mail-order bride. However, when Charley, accompanied by many of the townsfolk, gather at the train station to greet the woman on her scheduled arrival date, Charley is publicly embarrassed when she fails to appear. Realizing that he has been suckered out of his savings and feeling like a fool, Charley plans to leave the town for good. This would not be an issue except that Charley is the town’s only blacksmith and no one else is available to replace him.

In order to persuade their only blacksmith to stay, the townsfolk recruit a saloon girl named Sadie to pose as Charley’s mail-order bride. As Charley is a straight and narrow sort of person, he has never been in the saloon and does not immediately recognize the woman for what she really is. The film is about Charley’s simple-minded efforts to see through the deceit and the townspeople’s efforts to maintain the fiction that a saloon girl is as pure as the driven snow.

External links

• Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County at the Internet Movie Database