Second Time Around (1961)

In 1911 New York, a young widow (Debbie Reynolds) with two children heads west to Arizona to start a new life. But upon arrival, she finds the man who promised her a job dead, murdered in a hold up, and the town run by a corrupt sheriff (Ken Scott) and a gambler (Steve Forrest) and the only work she can find is as a ranch hand to an eccentric female rancher (a restrained Thelma Ritter). Directed by the veteran director Vincent Sherman (MR. SKEFFINGTON), this lightweight western comedy is a typical western romp. Two brawls, one in an ice cream shop and the other in a saloon, and Reynolds a fish out of water city slicker taking more than a few pratfalls in the mud, at times she seems to be rehearsing for her Molly Brown character which would come three years later. It's rather sweet really without getting sticky. The popular and Oscar nominated standard The Second Time Around comes from the film though in the print I saw, the song is not sung but used, without lyrics, as part of the underscore. With Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse (who, alas, gets to dance only briefly), Isobel Elsom, Eleanor Audley and Timothy Carey.