The Fighting Parson

Unlike the unintentionally amusing vehicles of many another western star, most of Hoot Gibson's starring films are funny on purpose -- and few are funnier than The Fighting Parson. Escaping from the sheriff after being caught with a pair of loaded dice, Gibson and his saddle pal Skeeter Bill Robbins come across the clothes and identification of a country parson. Our hero decides to hide out in the open by posing as the clergyman, getting to work immediately by preventing the hanging of outlaw Charlie King. But Hoot's life-saving motives are hardly altruistic: King is the fellow who divested the real parson of his clothes in the first place, and he threatens to blow the whistle on Gibson unless his life is spared. Though action is at a minimum in The Fighting Parson, the film makes up for the slack with some first-rate comic dialogue.