69% (1) Blue Montana Skies 56 min, PASSED, [Comedy, Music, Western] [B. Reeves Eason] [04 May 1939]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Gene Autry, Harry Woods, June Storey, Smiley Burnette
Writer: Gerald Geraghty (screen play), Norman S. Hall (original story), Paul Franklin (original story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Hendricks is smuggling furs across the border. Gene's partner sees them and is murdered. But before he died he wrote the initials HH. So Gene and Frog head to the HH dude ranch to investigate. They eventually get wise to Hendricks game but as soon as they find the furs they are made prisoners.
Rotten Tomatoes: Too many of Gene Autry's Republic western sacrificed action in favor of music. A notable exception to this syndrome is Blue Montana Skies, directed by a fast-action maestro B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason. The up-to-date plotline finds Autry battling a gang of fur smugglers operating on the Montana-Canada border. When his business partner Steve (Tully Marshall) is murdered by the crooks, cattleman Autry follows the clues to a ranch owned by Dorothy (June Storey). Unbeknownst to the heroine, the murderers, led by Hendricks (Harry Woods), are working as her ranchhands. By the time she finds this out, it looks like she's next in line for extinction-but not if our hero has anything to say about it.
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68% (1) Tumbling Tumbleweeds 61 min, APPROVED, [Music, Western] [Joseph Kane] [05 Sep 1935]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, External Reviews
Actors: Gene Autry, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Lucile Browne, Smiley Burnette
Writer: Alan Ludwig (story), Ford Beebe (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Traveling with Doc Parker's medicine show, Gene finds his old friend Harry Brooks wounded and the Sheriff after him for murdering his father. Gene also sees that Craven and his gang are looking for Brooks. Finding clues that Craven was behind the murder, Gene has a plan utilizing the medicine show wagon that will trap the gang.
Rotten Tomatoes: Gene Autry's first starring Western, Tumbling Tumbleweeds sets the pace for the 98 or so Autry oaters to come. As he would for the remainder of his screen career with only one exception, Gene plays Gene Autry, cowboy troubadour, who, upon his return west with musical friends Smiley (Smiley Burnette) and Eightball (Eugene Jackson), not only learns that his father has been murdered but that his childhood friend, Harry Brooks (Cornelius Keefe), is the most likely suspect. Naturally, Harry proves innocent while the real culprit is once again to be found among the town's more notable citizens. Gene, Burnette, and the Sons of the Pioneers (one of whom is the screen debuting Leonard Slye, soon to become Roy Rogers) perform Bob Nolan's title tune, along with "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine," by Gene Autry and Jimmy Long; "Ridin' Down the Canyon," by Autry and Smiley Burnette; and "Corn Fed and Rusty," by Burnette.
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67% (1) Loaded Pistols 78 min, APPROVED, [Action, Music, Musical] [John English] [18 Feb 1953]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Actors: Barbara Britton, Chill Wills, Gene Autry, Jack Holt
Writer: Dwight Cummins (story), Dorothy Yost (story), Dwight Cummins (screenplay), Dorothy Yost (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: The only Gene Autry film where the leading lady, Barbara Britton, is equally billed above the title as the co-star, thereby knocking his horse Champion out of the honors, if one chooses to overlook the 1941 novelty from 20th Century-Fox that had Jane Withers and Gene Autry above the title in that order. This Autry entry has Larry Evans, whose gun had been used to kill rancher Ed Norton in a poker game, escaping a lynching party headed by ranchers Dave Randall and Bill Otis. Norton's friend Gene Autry, investigating on his own, discovers that Larry's gun had been put in the poker pot with the chips, after Larry had lost all of his money, and anyone could have used it when the lights went out. He finds Larry and his sister Mary Evans in a hideaway, and sends Mary back to town and hides Larry in the cabin of miner Jim Hedge. Finding out that Randall and Don Mason have tried to buy the Evans ranch, Gene decides to take a look at it. Hedge shows up and says he can't figure out what could be on the ranch that would be worth committing murder for. The needle on Hedge's compass begins to spin madly but before Gene can question the miner, Sheriff Cramer arrives and arrests Larry. Gene persuades Cramer to gather all the players in the murder-game together to re-enact the crime, with Gene taking Norton's chair and with Larry's gun on the table. Gene tells the assembled players he knows who killed Norton and why, and the lights go out and a shot is fired at Gene. The latter, who didn't ride into town on a turnip truck, has filled Larry's gun with blanks and covered the handle with graphite.
Rotten Tomatoes: Gene Autry goes in search of the man who killed his friend during a blackout in this action-packed western from Columbia. Someone cuts the lights and kills Ed Norton (Stanley Blystone) during a heated poker game and that someone, according to Sheriff Cramer (Chill Wills), may just be young hothead Larry Evans (Russell Arms). Gene, however, thinks otherwise and arranges for Larry to hide out in a cabin belonging to elderly prospector Jim Hedge (Clem Bevans). But the real killer is doing his best to incriminate Larry and Gene must not only fight the sheriff but also the accused man's pretty sister, Mary (Barbara Britton), in order to uncover the truth behind the killing. Despite a preponderance of action, Autry, backed by the Cass County Boys, manages to perform five songs in Loaded Pistols: "Pretty Mary", "Jimmy Crack Corn", "When the Bloom is on the Sage", "A Boy from Texas, A Girl from Tennessee" and the title tune.
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64% (1) Mexicali Rose 59 min, Passed, [Western] [George Sherman] [27 Mar 1939]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, External Reviews
Actors: Gene Autry, Luana Walters, Noah Beery, Smiley Burnette
Writer: Luci Ward (original story), Connie Lee (original story), Gerald Geraghty (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Spanish Country: USA
Plot: Carruthers has sold shares in a phony oil well and when Gene investigates he finds the well is a fake. Gene has a plan to recoup everyone's money. Pouring some oil in a recommended location gets Corruthers to drill a real well. Gene plans to let him know it's a fake and redeem the shares before the oil comes in.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this western, Gene Autry and his sidekick must protect impoverished Mexican children from corrupt oilmen who are sponsoring his radio show. To help him, Autry enlists the aide of a Robin Hoodish bandito. Songs include: "You're the Only Star in My Blue Heaven," and "Mexicali Rose."
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60% (1) Boots and Saddles 58 min, Passed, [Action, Adventure, Music, Western] [Joseph Kane] [04 Oct 1937]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 60%, External Reviews
Actors: Gene Autry, Judith Allen, Ronald Sinclair, Smiley Burnette
Writer: Jack Natteford (story), Jack Natteford (screenplay), Oliver Drake (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Spanish Country: USA
Plot: Young Englishman inherits ranch which he wants to sell, but Gene's gonna turn him into a real westerner instead..
Rotten Tomatoes: In this western, a prissy English lord takes over his newly-inherited western ranch. The stuffy greenhorn is in way over his head, but fortunately, Gene Autry and his sidekick are there to show him the ropes.
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59% (1) The Big Show 71 min, PASSED, [Action, Comedy, Music] [Mack V. Wright, Joseph Kane] [16 Nov 1936]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 59%, External Reviews
Actors: Gene Autry, Kay Hughes, Sally Payne, Smiley Burnette
Writer: Dorrell McGowan (screenplay), Stuart E. McGowan (screenplay), Dorrell McGowan (original story), Stuart E. McGowan (original story)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: When cowboy star Tom Ford disappears, Wilson gets his double Gene Autry to impersonate him. But Ford owes gangster Rico $10,000 and Rico arrives to collect. He fails to get the money but learns that Autry is an impersonator and now blackmails Wilson and his movie studio.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this western, Gene Autry plays a famous cowboy star and his own stunt man. When Autry (the star) reneges on an agreement to make a personal appearance at Dallas' Texas Centennial, Autry (the stunt man) takes his boss' place. This causes confusion with the ladies and with a gang of mobsters.
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57% (1) Red River Valley 60 min, Passed, [Action, Music, Western] [B. Reeves Eason] [02 Mar 1936]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 57%, External Reviews
Actors: Boothe Howard, Frances Grant, Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette
Writer: Stuart E. McGowan (screenplay), Dorrell McGowan (screenplay), Stuart E. McGowan (original story), Dorrell McGowan (original story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: One of Gene Autry's early Republic westerns, the film has plenty of action and songs by Autry and Burdette, along with other musical novelty acts. Gene and his friend Frog help the valley's irrigation company solve the mystery of who's behind the terror tactics of those fighting the dam. In the process, they become implicated in a payroll robbery and must clear their names while pursuing the real robbers and trying to save the dam for the valley's drought-ravaged landowners.
Rotten Tomatoes: Singing cowboy Gene Autry stars in this formula western as Gene Autry (so far, so good), who teams up with his buddy Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) to investigate a series of accidents which have stopped construction of a dam being constructed by Sam Flint (George Baxter) and claimed the lives of much of the work crew. The progress of the damn is also thwarted when Bull Dural (George Cheseboro) and his gang attempt to steal the payroll; Gene and Frog suspect Bull may also be behind the deadly dirty tricks campaign before discovering he's just a pawn in a bigger game. Autry finds time to sing five tunes during the proceedings, inclusing the classic title song.
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