1939's Destry Rides Again ranks among best westerns ever
George Marshall's 1939 western Destry Rides Again landed at No. 22 on StudioBinder's list of the greatest western movies ever made, placing it just behind My Darling Clementine and Tombstone. James Stewart's first western still holds a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and remains one of Hollywood's most beloved comedy-leaning entries in the genre. Nearly 90 years after its release, the film is drawing fresh attention as ranking outlets revisit the western's all-time greats.
That renewed spotlight arrives during a busy moment for western canon debates. The Week recently included Sergio Leone's 1966 epic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly among the eight best westerns ever made, while outlets from Yahoo Entertainment to Looper continue ranking classics by James Stewart and other icons. For Destry Rides Again, the StudioBinder placement confirms what critics and audiences recognized from the start: this is no overlooked curio, but a genuine pillar of the form.
Key Takeaways
- Destry Rides Again ranked No. 22 on StudioBinder's list of the greatest western movies ever made.
- The 1939 film was James Stewart's first western and maintains a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score with a 7.7/10 critics' average.
- Director George Marshall and writer Felix Jackson blended comedy and subtle humor into a golden-era western that subverted 1930s expectations.
- Looper ranks Destry Rides Again third among Stewart's five best westerns, behind Winchester '73 and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
- The film is not currently available on streaming but can be rented or purchased through major VOD platforms such as Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Why Is Destry Rides Again Ranked Among the Best Westerns?
StudioBinder's ranking places Destry Rides Again at No. 22 on its all-time western list, directly behind two widely cited landmarks, My Darling Clementine and Tombstone. That is elite company for a film that predates Stewart's later reputation as a western icon by more than a decade.
Written by Felix Jackson, the story follows a young lawman summoned to the small town where his father once served as sheriff. His mission is straightforward on paper: bring the outlaws plaguing local residents to heel. What sets the film apart from many contemporaries is tone. Unlike the graver entries from Hollywood's so-called golden era, Marshall's picture weaves comedy and subtle humor throughout, giving the western an original feel that most audiences were not expecting from a blockbuster genre picture.
Contemporary reviewers noticed immediately. The New York Times praised James Stewart's performance as "easy, likable, [and] pleasantly humored," according to coverage in Yahoo Entertainment. Unlike some classics that needed decades of reassessment, Destry Rides Again was adored by fans and critics upon release for subverting the expectations of 1930s westerns.
What Makes James Stewart's First Western Stand Out?
For many viewers, Stewart and the western feel inseparable. Looper notes that the actor starred in the genre constantly throughout his career, particularly from 1950 onward, playing everything from bounty hunters to morally tested ranchers. Yet Destry Rides Again arrived far earlier, in 1939, making it Stewart's first-ever western and the oldest title among Looper's five best James Stewart western movies.
That same year was one of the busiest of Stewart's life. Just a year earlier, he had headlined the Oscar-winning best picture You Can't Take It with You alongside Jean Arthur. In 1939 alone, he earned his first Oscar nomination for best actor with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington while also appearing in a string of other releases, including the musical The Ice Follies of 1939. Amid that whirlwind schedule, he still found time to play Tom Destry, a peaceful lawman stuck in Bottleneck, a town run by saloon owner Kent, played by Brian Donlevy.
Marlene Dietrich co-stars as Kent's lover, creating friction as Destry tries to confront Kent and his allies. Running a tight 94 minutes, the film packs laughs, atmosphere, and personality-rich performances into every frame. Stewart's unwavering conviction as a man devoid of irony proved perfect for the role, and his rapport with Dietrich remains one of the picture's most memorable elements. Jackson's writing, combined with Stewart's charming lead performance, gave the project an entirely original feel within a crowded genre landscape.
It would be the 1950s before Stewart fully became the western movie icon he is viewed as today. At the time of Destry Rides Again, he was still a rising star within Hollywood. Even so, he completely steals the show here, which makes it all the more striking that nearly two decades passed before later classics such as The Far Country and The Man from Laramie cemented his western credentials for a new generation.
How Does Destry Compare to Stewart's Later Westerns?
Looper's ranked list of James Stewart's best western movies, ordered by average Letterboxd ratings, places Destry Rides Again at No. 3. Above it sit two landmarks from the 1950s and 1960s: Winchester '73, Stewart's 1950 collaboration with Anthony Mann about a prized rifle and a relentless pursuit, and John Ford's 1962 masterpiece The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which paired Stewart with John Wayne in a story about justice, friendship, and the passage of time.
Below Destry on Looper's list are Mann's grim 1953 bounty-hunter drama The Naked Spur and the widely acclaimed The Man from Laramie, another Mann picture exploring dueling loyalties and familial betrayal. Each title showcases a different side of Stewart's range, from the surlier characters of the 1950s to the morally complex figures that critics hailed as some of his finest work.
What unites them is endurance. Like Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which Quentin Tarantino has called his favorite film and which ranked in The Week's recent best-westerns roundup, Stewart's westerns continue to surface whenever publications revisit the genre's peaks. For fans tracing that lineage, our Nostalgia: Then & Now coverage follows how classic films keep finding new audiences decades after their original runs.
Where Can You Watch Destry Rides Again Today?
Endurance on paper does not always translate to easy access on screen. According to recent reporting, Destry Rides Again is not currently available on major streaming services. Viewers who want to see the film can still rent or purchase it through major video-on-demand platforms, including Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
That gap between reputation and availability is common for pre-1950 studio titles, but the numbers suggest demand remains strong. The film holds a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics awarding an average rating of 7.7 out of 10. Letterboxd users have also kept the title in circulation, helping explain why a 1939 Universal Pictures release still earns placement on modern best-western lists nearly 90 years later.
For audiences discovering Stewart before his Mann and Ford partnerships, or for longtime western fans revisiting golden-era comedy, Destry Rides Again offers a reminder of why the genre dominated American filmmaking for decades. It arrived before Stewart became synonymous with the saddle, yet it already showed why he would eventually own the territory.