The Old Barn Dance

Gene Autry was one of the most popular of stars in the 1930s and 1940s, in the movies,on radio, and on record. In his own way, a lot like Bing Crosby except he appealed to the folks in what now would be considered the red states.

His westerns were primarily musicals and had little plot line. But I have to confess that the villain here was truly unique. Tractor salesmen who are out to takeover a lot of land when farmers put up mortgages to get tractors.

Do you believe it? Gene Autry is hawking the virtue of using horses for ranch and farm work and he defeats the dastardly tractor people who have hornswoggled him to do a radio show for them.

With that kind of plot, can you take this film seriously. Of course not. So just listen to the singing.

By the way, the Old Barn Dance was a popular radio show at the time that featured country and western music and Gene made his start there

Slight Gene Autry vehicle will be a disappointment to those hoping by the time it's a full-fledged country-western musical along the lines of similar "b" movies from the period. Gene stars as a cowboy who sells wild horses in auctions with his group from town to town, singing and entertaining the crowds to get their attention. A young woman whose father owns a small town radio station tries to hire him to help out her failing station as a tractor seller wants an act for him to purchase radio time. Gene is not interested, given tractors are competition for his horses, but the girl tricks Roy into signing a contract just to appear on the radio but not letting him know his slot is sponsored by the tractor salesman. Of course the tractor salesman is also a crooked sort who signs the locals to contracts they can't make payments for and the locals blame Gene (WTH?) and go to whup him, of course they can't but good guy Gene tries to right the wrong done in his name.

Gene has some good western numbers but this is a kind of silly story and the leading lady's actions seem as mercenary as the bad guy. The ending is surprising violent with at least one corpse and in Gene's action scenes toward the end are rather brazenly done by a stuntman who scarcely resembles him.

Gene Autry and his hands head into town to hold a barn dance preparatory to their horse auction. But all the farmers are using Ivan Miller's tractors. Joan Valerie wants to have Miller advertise on her new radio station, but he doesn't think it will do much for sales, until he hears Autry singing. Get him for the show, Miller tells her, and he'll sign a contract. Gene doesn't want to be advertising tractors, so she tells him he'll be doing it for other groups, and she'll set up a mobile hook-up. Sales of tractors zoom, but they're being bought on credit, and with the crop coming in, the finance company (also controlled by Miller) starts to repossess the tractors. Want them back? Pledge your crops.

Besides the riding, stunts, Smiley Burnette driving a tractor back and forth to wreck a sales meeting, and good country and western singing, this Autry vehicle shows that director Joseph Kane and his staff have gotten the formula down, using it to tell something more than Frank Gruber's Seven Western Plots. It also says something about the value of the older ways, and the advantages of progress -- and their risks.

Autry knew his movies made a lot of money for Republic, so he decided to negotiate. Republic caved, and Autry's next movie was released six months later. But they had a back-up plan. In December they would release their first movie starring Roy Rogers.

Good compact screenplay that manages to coordinate songs, action, and radio-station plot in fairly smooth fashion. Okay, so maybe a tractor can do the work of 5 horses, but can a tractor run down a bad-guy in a car by going overland. Gene shows how a horse can (before Champion). Besides, a tractor can't be stroked or nuzzle like a buddy like a horse can.

Actually, the movie somewhat mirrors Depression era conditions (1938)—the farmers owe more on the tractors than they can pay, so they may lose their farms. Trouble is they're the victims of a crooked scheme that involves the unwitting Autry, who then has to make things right.

I like the radio programming from behind a bale of hay—a whole new concept in broadcasting. In fact, mobile broadcasting plays an important role in the story. Of course, Frog (Burnette) gets to do his bit, and by playing a musical instrument that looks like it's from Mars. All in all, it's a good little Autry programmer, Gene's last for Republic studios, who soon hired Roy Rogers to replace him. Oh well, I still like horses best.

A stupid woman causes a furor because she can't think past her own importance ... she lies and coerces for monetary gain and is used by the crooks to their advantage so they can acquire huge pieces of real estate at no cost ... autry finally figures it out in the long run but major damage has been done ... the young lad is the only smart one in the film