Public Cowboy No. 1 (1937)

Good imaginative mix of music, action, comedy, and man vs. machine. Gene's trying to stop a gang of cattle rustlers. Trouble is they're using modern technology like airplanes (spotters) and refrigerated trucks (hauling carcasses) to elude capture. Old Sheriff Doniphon and younger deputy Autry are not having much success, so ranchers call in a high-falutin' motorized detective company (think Pinkertons). So how's this all going to work out—will the new win out over the old. There's a little more story depth here than usual.Catch ace director, old Joe Kane using an off-angle camera shot to heighten effect of careening cars. Good touch even if on the arty side. Then there's cutie Ann Rutherford showing why she had such a durable Hollywood career. Heck, I even got laughs out of Frog and buddy donning a cow hide, especially when the horny and apparently near-sighted bull chases them. Okay, these are basically kid's shows, not to be taken seriously. So I have no problem with all the goofy anachronisms as long as they add to entertainment, which they do. On the matinée scale (not to be confused with adult westerns) I give this Autry entry a solid 8.

Gene Autry helps out a sheriff who is besieged by rustlers who are using spotter planes and short wave radios to get the cattle. A good, if some what forgettable, tale that plays in a way more like one of Republic Studio's serials with electronic gadgets and solid action. The problem with the film is, like with many Autry films, is that there is perhaps a bit too many songs. Granted the songs are nicely shoe horned into the tale, but at the same time they slow the momentum of the story. (I like Autry's films, I even like the songs, I just don't like the number of songs in the movies.) Worth a look especially if you're doing more than one movie.

This is a pretty typical early Gene Autry Western. Cowpokes and cattle and horses and cars/trucks/airplanes ... yeehaw.Anyway, the most unusual scene in this movie, very subtle indeed, is the opening sequence. Gene, ridin' and singin' along, the titles rolling by. Check out behind him and see if you see anything odd.What's that? Looks like a dummy or something. No, it's Smiley Burnette, riding backwards with a forward facing mask on the back of his head. Even funnier, once the titles and song are finished, Gene and another guy have a long conversation before they even mention the bizarre Smiley and his "disguise" ...His explanation: It was a disguise so that he could keep an eye out so no one could sneak up on them from behind. Ah, Smiley. Ah, humanity.

Times are changing out in the west and there's this gang of rustlers who've got sheriff William Farnum and Deputy Gene Autry baffled. The local newspaper editor Ann Rutherford is calling for sheriff Farnum to be replaced and that's not sitting well with Gene. Besides that political differences are interfering in a promising romance.Who'd ever have believed it, but Gene's perennial sidekick Smiley Burnette decides that a short wave radio just might be the key to things and son of a gun he turns out to be right. Ham radio operators the world over must have loved this picture.No really great songs for Gene come out of this particular film, but Smiley Burnette is a sight to see in a disguise as a cow trying to fend off the attentions of an amorous bull. All in the line of doing some undercover work. Worth watching Public Cowboy No. 1 for that alone.