Riders in the Sky (1949)

It was a common practice for a western film to have a current popular song's title as its own title, but the song almost never related to the theme, content or action of the movie. Here an attempt was made to integrate the terrifying story song 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' into this Gene Autry vehicle.Over and after the opening credits, Gene is riding the trail with his wranglers singing the song and then starting to tell how he believes in the ghost riders. When his foreman asks why, Gene starts telling the story in flashback. Towards the middle of the film he sings the song again in full, and a third time at the end, when we rejoin Gene on the trail where the movie began.Oh, that the story of the song could have really been what the movie was about! Instead we get your third rate oater. The only high point is seeing Gene sing it during a lightning filled rain storm in an almost music video production number, with Tom London playing the old prospector, with multiple exposures of sky and ghost herds and riders, and a dark close up of London reminiscent of those in 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' (1928)! Another of Gene's films with a music video like production number is 'Boots and Saddles' (1937), in which he sings in a slightly resigned tone 'Ridin' the Trail' a lament about how he'll be ridin' the trail the rest of his life.The other high point is seeing a thin Alan Hale, Jr. (Gilligan's 'skipper') as an evil sheriff. But that's about it. Mary Beth Hughes, the 'breakout' star of 'I Accuse My Parents' (1944) is a saloon hall girl; the 'Prairie Flower' is played by Gloria Henry, who went on to fame as Alice, Dennis' mother in TVs 'Dennis the Menace' (1959-1963). Pat Buttram appears as Gene's sidekick, a role he played from 1948-1955. Before his 1960s TV successes, Pat had his own daily radio show in the 50s. The author of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' Stan Jones? He graduated from Petaluma High School, where I also went to school.The movie only gets a 4.

Being a twenty two year old female, westerns from before my Mom was born aren't what you'd expect me to be watching... but here I am. I have to confess, I love Gene Autry and I love cheesy old westerns. Cheesiness is part of their charm! The Singing Cowboy- how much more Americana can you get? I adore Pat Buttram, too, and I have to admit that he's half the reason I had this movie ordered special from FYE. Anyway, I'm a huge sucker for this song and for old-timey westerns, and if this sounds like your cup of tea go for it- and if it doesn't, give it a shot anyway. It's adorable, funny, stirring, and it's got some cool fight scenes too. One minute you're laughing at Pat Buttram getting throwed off Gene's horse Champ, and the next minute you're biting your fingernails going "oh no he's going for his gun!" or something like that. Go on, watch it, it's fun.

I was never a Gene Autry fan, being a Roy Rogers fan from age 5, but of all the Autry movies, I recall this one. Tom London who plays the dying prospector tells Gene that the "Ghost Riders" are coming after him. Autry goes to the window and looks out to see the image of shadowy riders coming through the clouds. At this point, Gene sings the song. It is introduced more logically into the plot than any of his other songs. There is also a reprisal at the end of the movie. Even today, when I look up into a stormy sky, the song comes immediately to mind. It was written by Stan Jones, an ex-park ranger, who appeared in Autry's films and who also wrote another Autry hit, "Whirlwind." Tom London, who had appeared in several Republic films as Sunset Carson's sidekick, has said that this particular scene got him other parts in movies and television.

For the most part this is a movie only of interest to Autry enthusiasts and those who like the superb title song (around which the script was presumably cobbled together). Sure enough, the song pops up twice and is easily the film's highlight on each occasion. The way that it is sung here, with emotion and zeal, and the mythic quality of its lyrics means that it transcends the B-material in which it is embedded.The exception to boredom is the sequence in the film where the song plays out over the stark mono images of the old timer's grizzled face (as a character he dies shortly afterwards.) For an all too brief few minutes the power of the music asserts itself and the cinematography comes alive in high contrast black and white photography. The old timers' face becomes epic, stark, and deeply moving. In fact, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, I was reminded of Eisenstein's framing of facial 'types' in his Alexander Nevsky or October. So poetically powerful is this scene that it seems to have wondered in from another, more prestigious, movie (a good Western candidate being perhaps Anthony Mann's The Furies, where such stylisation abounds).Then like a pan handler's lucky strike, the moment of glory fades and we are back to cinematic mediocrity, and a negligible, undramatic oater of most interest to hard core fans and completists.