Man from Music Mountain (1938)

"The Man from Music Mountain" (1938) is available on Platinum Disc in a rather dark print copied from 16mm TV. Athough Gene is prominently featured on ads and credits, the movie actually stars Smiley Burnette, who not only has a slightly larger role - he even partners Gene at the action climax - but the best of the musical numbers, namely "She Works Third Tub at the Laundry" (one of Smiley's own compositions). What's worse for Autry fans is that Gene is very obviously doubled by a stunt expert zipping through the action at the start and at the finish. With all the songs and the comedy involving Smiley, Carol Hughes, Sally Payne, and a "cute" boy with buck teeth, the plot doesn't really get underway until ten minutes before the end title. At this breathless point, the heavies who have very cunningly presented themselves as Mr Nice Guys, suddenly fall out of character and commit a motiveless act of murder. Not one of Gene's best Republic outings by any means, yet it's one that most people remember. You have only to say, "Boulder Dam", and people instantly recall the revived ghost town, where cashed-up but feeble-brained homesteaders buy worthless land plots from a sleazy duo of obvious confidence men, who promise a bonanza when electricity and water are connected from the Dam - in the never-never!

Really good early Autry, an expert mix of story, music and action. I also learned what a difference electricity made to rural communities. We tend to take electric power for granted, but the movie is set in 1938, soon after Boulder Dam was built, and the bad guy is using the promise of electrification to scam Depression era folks. It's really worked well into the plot, better than any A-movie I've seen, and even produces a good laugh.Anyhow, Gene gets to do some hard riding in order to thwart their plans, along with an action-filled mine tunnel finale. Frog has a fairly straight role minus the usual clownish humor. What a fine versatile performer he was. There's also a did-I-really-see-that novelty act that beats out tunes on about everything but rocks. Include too a lovely Carol Hughes as eye-relief from all the ugly guys, and you've got a near perfect package of Autry entertainment.

Not to be confused with the later Roy Rogers film (THE Man from Music Mountain), this is very much a Poverty Row assembly-line oater, yet it's also better than most by far. For one thing, Autrey's foe isn't so much a villainous individual as a corporate usurper trying to suck the lifeblood by duplicitous means from an already-impoverished mining town that might or might not have a still-unmined gold reservoir. FDR would approve! For another, the musical sequences are frequent and often humorously eccentric. (I loved the number partially played on sleigh bells.) The whole thing is pretty tongue-in-cheek, with more singin' and yappin' than ridin' and shootin' until the last reel. I saw fhis on a cheap DVD collection (50 Gunslinger Classics) and it looked fine. I need to fill ten lines, right? Kerfuffle. Kablooey.

Gene Autry stars in this 1938 vintage musical western. Things get shady when crooked real estate developers 'hoodwink' poor honest cattle ranchers. Worthless mining stock is sold for the asking in a desert mining town. Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse(Smiley Burnette)put the kibosh on the white-wash, when word circulates that gold has been found. The guitar slinging cowpoke sings several tunes including "Love Burning Love" and "I'm Beginning To Care". Even Frog strains his vocal chords with "She Works Third Tub At The Laundry". Other cast members include: Carol Hughes, Ed Cassidy, Polly Jenkins, Ivan Miller and Sally Payne. All in all...the Autry movies are pretty much formulated.