Well I always took Gene for a pretty smart guy, so why would he sing a song with the line 'the ache in my heart is for you' to a lady who was just introduced to him as a widow. I'm still scratching my head over that one.
Without an opening song, this Autry flick hinted at being something different. So let's see if I can put this all together - two bank robbers on the run hijack a train locomotive, wind up stealing a couple of horses, make their way to the cabin of the main outlaw's brother, kill the brother after shaving his beard to have him resemble his sibling, burn down the building where the body is being held to thwart a positive ID, have the purported widow of the 'dead' man show up, and top it all off with the main villain Bartlett (Kenne Duncan) killing off all his partners along the way. Whew! Through it all, Gene managed to figure everything out and stop Bartlett atop a runaway train! Now that's a cowboy hero.
Fortunately you had Pat Buttram around for comic relief, and if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time ever in an Autry story where Pat's married and his wife is expecting a baby. The running gimmick in the picture has Mike (Pat's character) being called away for the blessed event only to have it wind up a false alarm each time until it actually happens. Then he hears the baby crying via a short wave radio transmission from the Doc's house!
Maybe even more interesting, to me at least, were the menu signs in Mike's diner. You had your traditional ham and eggs for sixty cents, a roast beef sandwich for fifty five cents and doughnuts for one thin dime. But then, and this might have been to see if anyone was paying attention, Mike had oysters for forty cents and squid for thirty cents! In the Wild West - squid!?!?
I guess you had to stay focused more than usual for this Gene Autry presentation. With all the twists and turns, there was only time enough for a couple of tunes, and just as you didn't have an opener, there was no closing song either. Instead, there were a couple of puzzling questions to wrap your head around - like could a sheriff really put you in jail for refusing to join a posse? It happened here to Gene. And seriously, would it only take a half hour for the doctor to do a facial surgery on bad guy Bartlett to change his identity?
Without an opening song, this Autry flick hinted at being something different. So let's see if I can put this all together - two bank robbers on the run hijack a train locomotive, wind up stealing a couple of horses, make their way to the cabin of the main outlaw's brother, kill the brother after shaving his beard to have him resemble his sibling, burn down the building where the body is being held to thwart a positive ID, have the purported widow of the 'dead' man show up, and top it all off with the main villain Bartlett (Kenne Duncan) killing off all his partners along the way. Whew! Through it all, Gene managed to figure everything out and stop Bartlett atop a runaway train! Now that's a cowboy hero.
Fortunately you had Pat Buttram around for comic relief, and if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time ever in an Autry story where Pat's married and his wife is expecting a baby. The running gimmick in the picture has Mike (Pat's character) being called away for the blessed event only to have it wind up a false alarm each time until it actually happens. Then he hears the baby crying via a short wave radio transmission from the Doc's house!
Maybe even more interesting, to me at least, were the menu signs in Mike's diner. You had your traditional ham and eggs for sixty cents, a roast beef sandwich for fifty five cents and doughnuts for one thin dime. But then, and this might have been to see if anyone was paying attention, Mike had oysters for forty cents and squid for thirty cents! In the Wild West - squid!?!?
I guess you had to stay focused more than usual for this Gene Autry presentation. With all the twists and turns, there was only time enough for a couple of tunes, and just as you didn't have an opener, there was no closing song either. Instead, there were a couple of puzzling questions to wrap your head around - like could a sheriff really put you in jail for refusing to join a posse? It happened here to Gene. And seriously, would it only take a half hour for the doctor to do a facial surgery on bad guy Bartlett to change his identity?