The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox

Another of the movies that started showing up in the FXM rotation not too long ago is the comic western The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox. Not having seen it before, I decided to record it so I could watch and do a review here. It's going to be on tomorrow at 11:25 AM, and again on Thursday, so now's the perfect time for the review.

The scene is San Francisco, 1882. Goldie Hawn plays Amanda Quaid, working as a showgirl in the sort of show you can imagine in a movie portraying the 1880s or the old west, although since this is after the end of the Production Code, the raciness is a bit less under wraps, especially in the lyrics of the songs they're singing. Amanda makes extra money by pretending to be a prostitute and getting men drunk enough to pass out so that she can steal her money.

George Segal plays Charlie Malloy, itinerant gambler who unfortunately likes to cheat at poker by keeping an extra ace up his sleeve, which invariably gets found out. In the town of Dirtwater, he's playing against Bloodworth (Roy Jenson), leader of a gang of bank robbers. When Malloy's cheating gets discovered, Bloodworth makes him take part in their latest robbery as Malloy knows a thing or two about explosives. After the robbery, however, Malloy runs off with the $40,000, leaving the Bloodworth gang with a bag of horse crap, and heads for San Francisco to get a boat to Australia.

So, as you can guess, Malloy is going to run into Amanda in San Francisco. By this time, she's been fired and rehired in her showgirl job, and has decided that she's going to go for a different scam. Widdecombe (Thayer David) is a wealthy Mormon from the Utah territory with multiple wives and a gaggle of children who needs a governess. Amanda decides she'll try to pass herself off as a duchess to get the job, and maybe then marry Widdecome to get at his money. Of course, she needs some seed money to be able to look like a duchess....

Obviously, that's where Malloy comes in. He's got money, but Amanda doesn't realize that he's got $40,000 since the bag he has it in has a false bottom. She thinks he's got maybe a couple hundred max which is why she doesn't get at first why he wants the bag back and doesn't want the police involved. Also, the Bloodworth gang is hot on Malloy's trail. Malloy and Amanda find out that the bag has gone ahead on an earlier coach to Salt Lake City, and with Amanda in a later coach, Malloy races out to catch up with her.

So, for the rest of the movie, Malloy and Amanda try to get that bag and the $40,000 back, while staying one step ahead of the Bloodworth gang. The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox is a moderately appealing movie, although that's largely thanks to the pairing of Segal and Hawn. The script, such as it is, really seems more like a series of sketches and running gags rather than a fully fleshed out film.

Still, if you want a pleasant enough comedy that doesn't require too much thinking, you could do a lot worse than to watch The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox.