The Shakiest Gun in the West is a 1968 American comedy Western film starring Don Knotts. It was directed by Alan Rafkin and written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, and is a remake of The Paleface, a 1948 film starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.
This film contains examples of:
- Accidental Hero: Jesse alternates between this and being Framed for Heroism by Penny.
- Action Girl: Penny is this to Jesse's Non-Action Guy.
- Chekhov's Skill: Unlike the original (where the dentist's incompetence was a source of humor), this remake bases the dental humor on uncooperative patients, and Jesse is actually the valedictorian of his dental school. And his skill at dentistry pays off at the end when he replaces the chief's missing teeth.
- City Slicker: Jesse W. Heywood may have been valedictorian of his dental school, but he thoroughly unfamiliar with The Wild West.
- Counting Bullets: Jesse practices shooting before his duel with Arnold the Kid, so Arnold waits until Jesse has fired all 6 shots before stepping into the street.
- Disguised in Drag: Jesse takes an Indian woman's clothes and wears them to infiltrate the festivities in the Indian village.
- Framed for Heroism: Jesse was hiding behind a barrel fumbling with his six-shooter, but he was lauded for killing the attacking Indians that Penny shot from the wagon. Later, Penny helps Jesse survive a duel with Arnold the Kid the same way.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Indian village, Jesse is about to duel the gun smuggler and his minion, and Penny is in a tipi with a rifle, ready to help Jesse survive another gunfight. Just then, she is grabbed by two marshals who came to save her. Gunshots ring out, and they return to town assuming that Jesse had been gunned down.
- Non-Action Guy: Jesse is this to Penny's Action Girl.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: When Penny's contact is shot, the townsfolk wake up "Doctor Heywood", not realizing that he is a dentist (who faints at the sight of the gunshot wound).
- Open Heart Dentistry: Mostly averted. While Jesse is the valedictorian of his dental school, he faints at the sight of the gunshot wound when the services of "Doctor Heywood" are called upon.
- The Pardon: Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing is offered a pardon if she can figure out who is smuggling guns to the Indians.
- Plot-Triggering Death:
- The male agents sent to investigate the gun smuggling were killed, so government agents recruit Penny.
- Penny and her contact were to pose as a married couple and join a wagon train. When he turns up dead, she marries a hapless dentist and they join the wagon train together.
- Undercover as Lovers: Jesse and Penny, except he doesn't know she's undercover.
