Wagon Team (1952)

Wagon Team finds Gene Autry cast as an agent for the stagecoach line looking to locate a missing $97,000.00 dollars stolen by Henry Rowland's gang and later stolen again by the notorious Apache Kid. The Apache Kid is Dick Jones who used to have a trick shot act with his father Harry Harvey and sister Gail Davis and their medicine show. But the outlaw life was alluring and Jones went off the straight and true path.Autry pretends to be an outlaw himself to get thrown into jail with Jones when he's caught in hopes of getting a line on the stolen loot. Rowland wants to know where the loot is hid and he wants to get his hands on Jones as well. It all works out nice in the end.Both Dick Jones and Gail Davis had ties to Autry as he would shortly produce their television series. For Jones he was involved with The Range Rider and Buffalo Bill, Jr. for Gene's Flying Crown Productions and Davis was TV's Annie Oakley under that same banner.Wagon Team also features Pat Buttram as Gene's sidekick here and on his television series and Gordon Jones who was one thick as a brick marshal.Nice, but Gene would shortly be doing these kind of films on television himself.

This is one of the few Gene Autry Westerns I've seen, at least lately, where the name of the picture doesn't establish itself as the title tune along the way. Instead, "Wagon Team" appears to derive from the quartet of white horses used by Doc Weldon for his Tonk-A-Wa Medicine Show rig. For a while I was waiting for someone to call the horses into action by way of Rudolph's reindeer team, 'On Neptune, On Mercury, On Comet, and Jupiter'. OK, I'm stretching here a bit, but the thought did cross my mind.The cast here is a familiar one if you've ever seen Gene's TV Western series where Pat Buttram, Gail Davis, and Dick Jones appeared quite regularly, often as different characters. In this one, Jones is an outlaw going by the name of Apache Kid, sharing a jail cell with Gene in the opening scene. Gene's there by design hoping to gain some information on the McClure gang who robbed a military payroll of ninety seven thousand dollars. Marshal Sam Taplin (Gordon Jones) resents Autry's help, figuring he'll have better luck by letting Apache escape and following him to the loot.Apache Kid has a connection to the Tonk-A-Wa folks, his father is Doc Weldon (Harry Harvey), and Gail Davis portrays his sister Connie. Gene has to balance family relationships against the need to recover the missing payroll, but eventually prevails, after the McClure gang captures Dave to lead them to the payroll strong-box.Also in the employ of the medicine show are the Cass County Boys, offering up an upbeat rendition of 'Jubilee'. Gene falls back on an old standard of his, singing 'Back in the Saddle Again'. Autry fans will probably find this one to be about average for his films and I'll second that. If not for the one hour run time, this could have been an episode of the Gene Autry show by cutting down on a couple of songs and moving the pace up a bit.

Stageline Agent Gene Autry goes undercover to help recover the Army payroll stolen from his company by the Apache Kid (Dick Jones) Gene has himself placed in jail as the Kid's cell mate over the objections of the crotchety Sheriff (Gordon Jones), who resents Gene's interference. When the Kid escapes jail Autry follows the clues to the Kid's Father(Harry Harvey) and Sister's (Gail Davis) Traveling Medicine Show, followed by the sheriff and Deputy Pat Buttram who is in line to collect reward money upon the Kid's conviction. Gene must work around the suspicions of the Kid and his family as well as having to battle Bad Guy Mike Mcclure (Henry Rowland) and his henchmen for the stolen loot.This later Autry Movie has more singing than most of that era. Gene reworks "In and Out of the Jailhouse" and his signature tune "Back in the Saddle Again". The Cass County Boys provide some toe-tapping old time gospel with "Jubilee". The cast is almost entirely comprised of "Gene Autry Show" regulars (ex-Gordon Jones) putting in some overtime for the Big Screen. Add to that the stock footage and you have a fairly uninspired B-Western. The movie definitely has a feel of corner cutting, which is unusual since Gene's B's tended to have higher production values compared to the competition. Lucky for us fans though, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in this case. While certainly not Gene's best work, most Autry Fans won't ask for their 61 minutes back.Showing up in this as the sheriff, veteran actor Gordon Jones had his only big screen appearance with Autry in "Wagon Team" though he had previously appeared in a couple of the Autry television episodes. Not only was Jones prolific, he was also one of the most versatile actors to hit the saddle. He was equally at home as the sidekick, the lawman or playing the bad guy. Jones familiar face appeared throughout the 1950's in episodic television with occasional big screen appearances, ending in 1963 with John Wayne in "McLintock. Not one of Gene's very best but Worth a watch -- 5 out of 10*

WAGON TEAM is one of Gene Autry's more popular vehicles. When an Army payroll is stolen, Gene has himself put in jail to get a lead on the culprits. The prime suspect, Dave Weldon(Dickie Jones), runs back to a musical medicine show run by his family. Autry joins the show to keep track of Weldon; and the singing stagecoach agent/investigator makes the acquaintance of Connie Welson(Gail Davis). When Dave Weldon is injured, Gene and Deputy Pat Buttram must decide whether or not to save the criminal at the expense of not solving the case.Gene sings "In and Out of the Jailhouse" and the classic "Back in the Saddle Again". Other medicine show talent is provided by The Cass County Boys. Also in the cast are: Gregg Barton, Henry Rowland, John Cason and Gordon Jones. If Miss Davis seems familiar; she not only has worked with Autry before, in the early 50's she often appeared on the TV shows "The Lone Ranger", "The Cisco Kid" and "The Range Rider".