Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	George Marshall
Produced by	Joe Pasternak
Written by	Max Brand (novel Destry Rides Again) Felix Jackson (screenplay and story) Henry Myers Gertrude Purcell
Starring	Marlene Dietrich James Stewart Mischa Auer Brian Donlevy
Music by	Frank Skinner
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Edited by	Milton Carruth
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 29, 1939 (1939-12-29) (U.S. release) 1945 (France)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1.6 million

Destry Rides Again is a 1939 western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart, and directed by George Marshall. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr., Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel. Although the title comes from Max Brand's popular novel, which inspired the earlier screenplay with Tom Mix, this version is almost entirely unrelated to either.

In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Saloon owner Kent (Brian Donlevy), the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's sheriff, Keogh, killed when Keogh asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and "Frenchy" (Marlene Dietrich), his girlfriend and the dance hall queen, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The crooked town's mayor, Hiram J. Slade (Samuel S. Hinds), who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale (Charles Winninger), as the new sheriff, assuming that he will be easy to control and manipulate. But what the mayor does not know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under the famous lawman, Tom Destry, and is able to call upon the latter's equally formidable son, Tom Destry, Jr. (James Stewart), to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.