Ride, Ranger, Ride (1936)

If "The Old Barn Dance" seems somewhat lacking in sympathetic appeal to a modern-day audience, the same cannot be said for McConville's earlier script, "Ride, Ranger, Ride" (1936). In this one, an army martinet (Robert Homans) is the villain - a piece of putty in the hands of super-bad renegade, Monte Blue - while Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette and a remarkably personable Max Terhune (minus "Elmer", I'm glad to say) lead the good guys in this elaborately produced (although helped out with some obvious stock footage) Nat Levine production. Director Kane keeps the movie moving, but Gene himself often seems oddly subdued. It's the other players who have all the good lines and handle most of the action. Even the songs are sparse! (Echo Bridge used to handle DVD discs of the 16mm TV cutdown).

The Texas Rangers are about to be demobilized because the U.S. Cavalry is coming to Texas. They've got garrison duty as the Comanches are allegedly at peace. That's not what Gene Autry says and that's not what grizzled scout Max Terhune says, who actually does say the only good Indian is a dead one. And that's allegedly without the dummy.Gene and the whole troop of rangers join the cavalry including Max as a scout and even Smiley Burnette. They really don't take to military life to well. In addition Gene's got a romantic rivalry going with George J. Lewis over Kay Hughes. Somebody is stirring up the Indians, acting as agent provocateur and for those interested in seeing this ancient oater I won't reveal who it is.Usually Autry westerns at least included some decent cowboy numbers. But even after seeing this only a couple of hours ago on TCM, I can't remember a one of them.The Indians are really presented in a bad light. Oafs and Dupes at best and savages at worst. But you can't expect too much from a B western.Although saying B is giving this one too high a grade.

Fairly tame Gene Autry vehicle (as if there were any hard-hitting, serious-minded ones) that deals with Autry and his pals getting jobs with the Texas Rangers, In this we realize a number of things.. we see that the rangers are trigger-happy when it comes to arresting Autry (and rehiring people on the spot), it shows how to to do the old flattened metal dish to block doorways from being locked, how people are around handily to turn tables over when there's a fight, and how the Indians, while using their "Man go that way" type of talk, also use sign language to get their point across. This is a rather curious movie, that teaches us that the Texas Rangers are not to be trusted, has an EXTREMELY lame love interest, and how they are able to get a song in our head by repeating it 3 times. Yikes!

Although made in 1936, this film has the stodgy, choppy, primitive look of a B western of 1930 or 1931. I'm not particularly an Autry fan, but I've seen far better examples of his work than this. The script is forced, the "humor" involving an Indian repeatedly trying to scalp Frog (Smiley Burnette) to collect on a bet is not only unfunny but insulting and degrading, even for the 1930s. The songs are uninspired and leaden, Autry's delivery of both dialogue and lyrics are even more wooden than usual, and the tinny, uneven sound quality is reminiscent of the worst of PRC. Republic's westerns are usually much more technically proficient and accomplished, and director Joseph Kane has done far, far better work both before and after this film came out, so I'm not quite sure what the problem was with this picture, but it had more than its share of them. On the other hand, there's a somewhat exciting horse race, and Kay Hughes, as the girl fought over by rivals Autry and George J. Lewis, is ravishingly beautiful, much more so than many of Autry's other Republic leading ladies, and that goes a long way toward making up for the film's deficiencies, both technically and otherwise. But it's not quite enough to cover the fact that this picture is definitely one of Autry's weakest efforts. Skip it; you won't be missing much.