Goin' South

Buckskin and anti-establishmentarianism were big in the 1970s so the spoof Western was a popular genre (Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles (1974), being exemplary of the breed).

Jack Nicholson in his second directorial effort takes the opportunity to mug mercilessly as Henry Moon, a loveable rogue on the run from the law after a failed bank robbery who marries a pioneer woman (Mary Steenburgen) in order to save himself from a hanging.  With aspirations of being a lady back East she wants a man to work her farm and its gold mine and has no interest in consummating the union.  Needless to say the conflict between Steenburgen’s prim matron and Nicholson’s lascivious lay-about is the film’s main card. Indeed that is really all the film is.

Steenburgen and Danny De Vito, who appears as a member of Moon's old gang, were making their screen debuts whilst John Belushi and Christopher Lloyd ham it up as a pair of witless deputies.

 

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