Round-Up Time in Texas

Gene Autry gets a telegram from his brother, Ken Cooper, that he's made a big diamond strike, but there are no horses. So Gene and Smiley Burnette head off to Africa with a lot of horses, only to discover that Cooper has vanished.

It's an intriguing variation on the lost gold mine plot, but it soon devolves into one of those movies in which all the ugly stereotypes about dumb Black natives are trotted out. Burnette teaches the Cabin Kids how to sing "Dinah", director Joseph Kane is so uncaring that he doesn't bother to make the shots match on the big stunt gag (in which Autry leaps from Champion onto a runaway Conestoga wagon, and then back again with Maxine Doyle), and Ray Corrigan appears as a gorilla.

Despite the title, almost none of the film is set in Texas! Now here is where the film gets REALLY weird--it's supposed to take place in South Africa! Yes, Gene Autry, his horse Champion and his faithful sidekick Smiley Burnett in South Africa! And, the overall product looks a lot like a B-western merged with a Tarzan flick! Talk about strange! The film begins back in the States. Gene receives a letter from his brother* saying that they really need livestock in South Africa and they can get top dollar for them. So, he and Smiley head across the ocean. However, when they arrive they can't find the brother--he has disappeared after some evil claim-jumpers killed his partner and did goodness knows with him. So, in the process of investigating the disappearance, the baddies try to stop him--leading, naturally, to the somewhat exciting conclusion.

Seeing Gene on his horse chasing baddies and then a moment later rushing about a thick jungle set is surreal to say the least. And, seeing Smiley doing fire-eating tricks as well as leading musical group supposedly made up of the Chief's kids really gave this movie a strangeness that made my brain hurt. Still, it was fun and kept my attention and is worth seeing if you like Gene Autry films. Others, however, might not be very impressed or be a bit offended by the stereotypical behaviors of the 'natives' or the use of the 'K-word' (I don't think IMDb would let me use this derogatory word for African Blacks--but to many it's about as offensive as the 'ol 'N-word' in the USA. And, I have been to South Africa and this sure looked NOTHING like the real McCoy--more like extras and props from a Tarzan picture!

FYI--The guy playing Gene's brother was NOT his actual real-life brother--just some actor.

Round-Up Time In Texas does not really fit in with the whole cowboy movie genre. Why did Gene and Frog have to have an adventure in South Africa? I'll bet it was because a set was built for a jungle picture and it was cheap for the studio to use it as often as possible before tearing it down. Stock footage of a lion shows up in the movie along with a guy in a gorilla suit. Plenty of black African extras are in this movie. Funny how those South African streets look like a Texas town, isn't it?

The movie is fun to watch, but it is not a western. It is about as much of a western as The Phantom Empire. You get a cowboy, some horses, and some western songs, but that's about it. Even though the cast is moving through the jungle to find a lost diamond mine, I kept trying to think of the movie in a Gene Autry western movie context. It just didn't work.

Smiley Burnette is good as usual. Earle Hodgins tried to have a bit of an accent in his character, but LeRoy Mason and most of the others in the cast speak just like they would in any other movie.

Round-Up Time In Texas is worth watching if you are a fan of Gene Autry movies, but should not be high on a priority list unless you want to watch truly weird movies.

Now of course you would think that a film entitled Round-Up Time In Texas starring Gene Autry would be located in the Lone Star State. Not by a longshot. In this film Gene gets a telegram from his brother Tex Autry who's over in South Africa where he and a partner have made a rich diamond strike. Tex tells Gene to send over 50 head of Texas cow ponies and what he can't use he'll auction off.

Hard to believe that in 1937 he would have to send over to Texas for horses, but Gene gets the message and he and Smiley Burnette board a boat from Galveston to Capetown. And then they head to the town of Dunbar where Tex was heard from.

Traditional cowboy villain LeRoy Mason maybe operating in South Africa, but he's not lost any nastiness. He and a native gang ambush Tex and his partner and kill the partner and frame Tex. Gene arrives and hears Tex is wanted for murder. Autry's on the hunt now.

One of my big pet peeves about films from Hollywood dealing with Africa is that a couple of generations of Americans got their ideas about Africa from films like this. In this film for instance the term "kaffir" is used to describe the native population. Back in 1937 I'll bet those in charge of Republic Pictures from Herbert J. Yates on down had no idea that that word was a term of disparagement as bad as the "n" word in America. They should have known better, but few in America knew anything about Africa.

The natives in the film behave like a combination of stereotyped blacks in American located films and American Indians in those same films. Looks ridiculous. You will also not hear one person sound like they come from South Africa. The closest you get is American western character actor Earl Hodgins who talks like a London cockney.

The voortrekkers in South Africa used covered wagons like our American Conestogas and I suppose a saloon is a saloon anywhere on planet earth. So maybe knowing this, Yates felt secure in making a South African locale picture for his number cowboy star.

I did learn one thing though from Round Up Time in Texas. I learned the origin of the song When the Bloom is on the Sage which Gene Autry sings and includes the title of the film. I had Bing Crosby's record of it and it's a nice western ballad. Gene does well by it too.

If this god awful film ever made it to Johannesburg, Capetown, or Pretoria they must have been rolling in the aisles with laughter at the dumb American's idea of their country.

contrary to another comment that they must have used a set built for a jungle film---it was actually the Republic Studios back lot western set that was used for this film. as well as the back lot jungle area already there at the time. The western set was used as a number of other locations over the year also. The Spanish arches seen in the film were at the Mexican village part of the set and used over the years as a fort, a North African village, etc; all they do is shoot from different camera angles and place the appropriate foliage and decorations here and there, and voilà!!! They can be anywhere. the western street was strange in the movie as South Africa, it having been used numerous times in movies and TV westerns. The republic studios back lot was part of the CBS Studio Center beginning in the mid 60's or so and even Gunsmoke used that set a number of times.