a5c7b9f00b The foreman of a mining company is out to steal the mine from its owners, and Gene must stop him. Because it was filmed on the heels of Heart Of The Rio Grande which also had Edith Fellows starring, and Deep In The Heart Of Texas for one of its songs I've always considered this a nice if slightly weaker bookend for it.<br/><br/>It's goodies vs baddies again with a rather complicated plot involving baddie Emmett Vogan and his henchmen trying to wrest a mine from a weak goodie Bill Henry with a nice sister Louise Currie with a radio station and a singing juvenile sister Fellows who's smitten with the imperturbable Gene Autry when he blows into town with Frog. Gene is framed via the radio and has to clear himself and generally save the day. Although nice to watch I preferred June Storey as the heroine in these tales Currie here plays a woman named Nancy Drew but Gene is the only detective here! Short on action but compensated for with plenty of lilting music, my favourites being Goodnight Sweetheart (to Currie changing the car tyre), I'll Never Let You Go (duet with Fellows in the "radio" studio) and the final medley including a sing-a-long version of Deep In The Heart Of Texas for the original cinema audience.<br/><br/>Nothing special but with a rousing climax it's a satisfying film overall to an Autry fan like me, others might have a job getting anything from it. All the elements of the winning Autry programmer are present—good plot, lovely ladies, hard riding, plus music and humor—all smoothly blended. Nothing really exceptional unless you count that sudden gusher out the hillside. Gene's working to keep a gold mine out of hands of devious plotters, and also uphold the virtues of cattle and horses. Of course Gene knows about heritage of the old West, at least the movie version. Then too, Republic always supplied the star with good production values. Also, look for the great Tom London as one of the baddies. No matinée oater would be complete without him. I can only guess at how many hundreds he was in over the years. On the tuneful side, little Edith Fellows manages to inject a winsome juvenile presence without being obnoxious, while Frog battles the bad guys when not offering up his slapstick brand of comedy. Nothing special here—just another solid installment of Gene's outstanding years with Republic Studios.<br/><br/>A "6" on the matinée scale.
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