Six Shootin' Sheriff

Ken Maynard is the Six Shootin' Sheriff in this so-so western from the M&A Alexander production mills. A bit thick of waist and thicker of tongue, Maynard nonetheless holds his own in the action scenes, which is really all his fans wanted. The plot finds our hero falsely accused of a bank robbery, obliging him to break out of jail and track down the real culprits. Critics in 1939 were amused by the climactic battle between the portly Maynard and the even heftier Dick Alexander: one reviewer unkindly alluded to "five hunderd pounds of excess weight thrashing around on the saloon floor." Filmed in approximately four days, Six Shootin' Sheriff was typical of the slapped-together vehicles with which Ken Maynard had to be satisfied in the waning days of the 1930s.