Wanda the Wonderful

Carolyn McCartney’s documentary about her grandmother, sharpshooter Wanda Savage, is a mind-boggling pleasure. Part Chickasaw and born to a family of lawmen who taught her to shoot, Savage found a vaudeville career on three continents and performed stunts in silent Westerns, all followed by a less-than-triumphant stateside return, to a brothel in Thermopolis, Wyoming. There, she met her fourth and best husband—and the only one she shot. Told through family interviews, home movies and re-enactments, this documentary is a charmer.

Henry C. Parke is a screenwriter based in Los Angeles, California, who blogs about Western movies, TV, radio and print news: HenrysWesternRoundup.Blogspot.com