dougdoepke Superior mix of the usual Autry staples. Gene's out to save English boy's ranch by selling ranch horses to the army. Of course, there are baddies trying to get the army contract by using dishonest tactics. Also along the way is the expected blend of humor, romance and song all piloted by old studio pro Joe KaneIn my book, Gene's best movies were with Republic, which specialized in matinée westerns. Here, the studio popped for scenic Lone Pine locations and a ton of army extras, along with an above average script. The comedy set-ups are particularly inventive, genuinely amusing without being silly. I did notice one trip-wire scene—too bad they weren't abolished sooner. Anyway, a youthful Gene is at his peak, nicely complemented by a winsome Judith Allen and a surprisingly agile Frog Millhouse. Fans of gunplay will be disappointed since there's very little. However, the climactic horse race supplies a lot of acrobatic action. All in all, the film's a really entertaining blend, among Autry's best.

OldAle1 Included as an extra on the 2nd disc of the 2-disc VCI "Phantom Empire", "Boots and Saddles" is a 53-minute B-western that is apparently typical of Autry's work after the serial for the 18 years (1935-1953) that he was a regular film actor. Autry made dozens and dozens of these short features, playing himself typically and working through plots that were probably hackneyed even then.Gene's the foreman of a ranch named - you guessed it - Gene Autry, who happens to be - are you shocked? - just as good with a guitar and yodel as with a horse and sixgun. The ranch's owner has died and his spoiled English-raised bratty adolescent kid has come to take over, and plans to sell it. After a ride on the range with Gene though the boy changes his mind, thus putting a snag in the plans of the villain of the piece, Jim Neill (Bill Elliott) who wanted to raise horses to sell to the army. Gene decides to do the same thing himself and also runs afoul of the army colonel (Guy Usher) in charge of buying horses, and his lovely daughter (Judith Allen) who of course gets some romancin'. Some decent riding sequences, a couple of very brief and bloodless gunfights, Smiley Burnett on hand for some slapstick, and lots of songs. It moves along nicely and is competently put together, but if this in fact is one of the better Autry westerns, I probably won't be seeking out a lot of the other 90 or so out there....

John W Chance This is neither one of Gene's best, nor his worst. Instead of the non stop action in other kinds of westerns, in many of his movies we get the gentle Gene in well edited and scripted development of story, character, music and comedy. This one fits this Republic formula well, but one wishes it were a little more exciting.Here Gene is a ranch foreman who wants to sell horses to the military. The first half is all about horses. Horses, horses, horses in the wonderful outdoor setting of the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California.Smiley Burnette is not just a side kick, but a de facto co-star in many of his pictures with Gene-- he usually sings a solo (one of his own songs), and gets to do two or three comic relief bits. These scenes seem to be filling in for the fact that Gene is not an athletic fist fighting, gun shooting action actor. You can see how gingerly he dismounts Champion and carefully looks for his landing spot at the Lone Hills train station. So "Frog" gets almost as much screen time as Gene does.We have "Wild Bill" Elliot (here as Gordon Elliot) as the villain. He's got that deep, tough, look and voice that makes him good either as a hero or a villain (like Humphrey Bogart or Lash La Rue). Unfortunately, the good guy / bad guy relationship is not the core of the film, and gets short shrift at the expense of Frog's comedy scenes, and the better developed love story.Gene is really a singer, and we get six songs, four from him. Many westerns used a popular song in the title as built in recognition / promotion for the films themselves. Here we have 'Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddles' (1935) sung during the opening titles and at the end. Also noteworthy is 'Riding the Trail' by Gene in an almost music video edited production, with him singing, in a slightly resigned tone about how he'll be riding the trail 'the rest of his life.' You'll probably stay awake during the entire movie; it's pretty well put together and edited, even if it doesn't rise above its formulaic and workmanlike construction. I'll give it a four.

classicsoncall Gene Autry takes a young English aristocrat under his wing, Edward the Earl of Granby, and quickly nicknames him 'Spud' after the boy's father. Starting out one gets the impression that Spud will use his nobility to be a royal pain, but he soon warms up to Gene and his sidekick Frog (Smiley Burnette) after Gene saves him from a runaway bronco. The Earl has arrived out West with the intention of selling the working ranch that he's inherited, but changes his mind when he takes a liking to Gene's plan to round up range horses and train them for the military.The film's villain Jim Neale has other plans though, he would like to get his hands on Spud's ranch to expand his own operation. Neale is portrayed by a mustachioed and smarmy looking Gordon Elliott, soon before he came to be known as Wild Bill and a cowboy hero in his own right. The showdown occurs when Army Colonel Allen (Guy Usher) agrees to a race between Gene's white hats against Neale's black hats, with the winner to be awarded the military contract. The Colonel's daughter (Judith Allen) is the film's romantic interest, and tries to have some fun getting even with Gene for an earlier encounter.There's a neat scene when two of Neale's henchmen take off after Gene on horseback; Gene leaps up to break off a tree limb and uses it to trip up both men's horses. I'd really be curious as to how they managed to film that, as both horses took a heavy spill to dismount their riders.Smiley Burnette manages to take center stage a number of times in the story, getting caught up in a marching drill, and launching a military charge as he runs through a medley of trumpet solos. Later he gets to ham it up in a bicycle race with one of the baddies after they lose their mounts in the horse race.As expected, Gene Autry saves the day for Spud and his ranch by crossing the finish line just ahead of bad guy Neale. The film ends as it began, with Gene crooning a tune, this time with the pretty Miss Allen riding by his side.