The Second Time Around (1961)

Debbie Reynolds elected to town Sheriff?! That does not compute! There's no way she could have ever handled the job. In fact it just made me root for the outlaws and even cheer as robbed the town captured the new Sheriff and ride off with her. Any Western town that would elect Debbie as Sheriff deserves to be taken over by outlaws!

Copyright 1 November 1961 by Cummings-Harman Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 22 December 1961. U.S. release: 26 October 1961. U.K. release: 4 February 1962. 8,880 feet. 99 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Charleyville is a typical pioneer town at the turn of the century, peppered with outlaws, saloon-thugs and gamblers who make life tough for the ranch folk. Broke and friendless, Debbie takes a job as ranch-hand with Aggie Gates (Thelma Ritter), aiming to collect enough money to send for the two youngsters she has left in New York with her mother-in-law. Saloon-keeper Dan Jones (Steve Forrest) and his dance-hall sweetheart (Juliet Prowse) are an immediate threat to Debbie's security, as is Sheriff Yoss (Ken Scott) whose loose government Debbie attacks at once and sets out to fight to a showdown. Befriending Debbie in a series of adventures through which she learns to slug her way with the best of them, is neighboring rancher Pat Collins (Andy Griffith).NOTES: The novel by Richard Emery Roberts entitled "Star in the West" was first published in 1951. To coincide with the movie release, Pocketbooks launched an initial printing of 500,000 copies. As the movie chalked up no great returns at the box-office, I wonder how many copies were pulped? COMMENT: Far-fetched and not to be taken too seriously, "The Second Time Around" is a pleasant and amusingly unassuming little film with some most agreeable characterizations. Miss Reynolds herself leads the pack, but she is more than ably supported by Steve Forrest (of all people), Andy Griffith, Ken Scott (another surprise, he's absolutely top-notch as a crooked sheriff) and Tom Greenway (a Lon Chaney Jr. imitator in the small part of the deputy sheriff).These character sketches are well handled by director Vincent Sherman (here making his final Hollywood movie). True, Sherman has significantly less success with Tracy Stratford and Jimmy Garrett, two typically American movie brats who are fortunately left behind in New York.OTHER VIEWS: Miss Reynolds is a natural at this sort of thing. She really flings herself into this part. It's her show... Except for one brief, snappy Flamenco, all Juliet Prowse has to do is kind of hover in the background. She hovers well. — Variety.

This certainly is a very unusual film--and its being so different is a big plus. The film begins in the East and the widow Lu Rogers (Debbie Reynolds) and her children are living with her mother-in-law. However, Lu wants to go out and earn her own money and find a place of her own for her family, so she takes up on an offer by an old family friend to move to Arizona (about 1912) and work for him. However, when Lu arrives she learns that the man is dead...and she is without any prospects. But a woman (Thelma Ritter) feels sorry for her and agrees to take this city girl on as a hired hand.Along the way, two men (Andy Griffith and the rakish Steve Forrest) vie for her hand. She also has a bit of a small feud with the local sheriff...that ends up erupting into an all-out war! Can this nice little lady manage to survive all this?!The film is, more than anything else, fun...along with being unusual. It's hard not to like the film and Reynolds is at her spunky best. Well worth seeing and as much different from a typical western as you can find! Cute and clever.

Film buffs love to say Debbie Reynolds is 'underrated' as an actress--but most of her fluffy output from the 1960s look suspiciously like Doris Day cast-offs. Finally, in "The Second Time Around", she gets a sparkling comedy, a disarming concoction with Reynolds in good form as a widowed mother of two who relocates to Arizona in search of work and ends up the new mayor of a tumbleweed town. Sharp script, colorful supporting work from Andy Griffith, Thelma Ritter, Juliet Prowse and the reliable Steve Forrest, and a fine sense of atmosphere and nuance makes this one of Debbie's best comic vehicles. *** from ****