Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm

If you've seen as many westerns as i have from the early 30's to the mid 50's you'll have recognized the alabama hills scenery ... it seems lone pine was a favorite location of directors especially if you needed a big cast of riders ... most were engaged on multiple films being shot around the same area ... the only thing that threw this oater off pace was the singing

Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette disguise themselves as bad guys to help crack a ring of cattle rustlers.

Clearly, Republic was trying to upgrade Autry's singing westerns, with a story that is fairly standard for a B western, but has a pretty good script. They've also started to upgrade the performers, with Armida and Monte Blue in major roles. On the downside, this one has Mack Wright directing, and while his credits show he was a well regarded assistant director, his handling of the actors is nothing to write home about. On the other hand, working with cameraman William Nobles, he shoots the stunt gags very well.

In the meantime, the random title, based on nothing in particular, is pretty off-putting.

Even for a B western, this wasn't very good. Compared with A westerns of the period, this is really bad.

The plot is confusing as to who is who in all that dust and with all those costume changes. There's lots of shooting, but not many dead bodies. The action scenes are interspersed with some fair to middling western tunes by the hero and others.

Gene Autry made better movies than this. This one appears to be thrown together as the movies was being shot. The ending is completely predictable and dull.

Gene even has a half-hearted love interest that comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. And he leaves her with a song.

Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm has everything it takes to make a good cowboy movie, all the right cast members, great music, and beautiful scenery. Most of all it has a lot of action. This one has Gene Autry's best sidekick, Smiley Burnette as Frog Milhouse. That right there is enough to guarantee some fun.

The plot does not follow a clear line, and Gene makes a decision that is questionable. Rather than focus on the jumpy plot, one just has to follow the hero, Gene Autry, and all will work out in the end. Once the introductory scenes at the beginning of the movie are through Gene and Frog a constantly confronting bad guys and the women who think Gene and Frog are bad guys.

There are familiar faces in the cast. Charlie King was not utilized much in this movie, but his presence as a bad guy was part of so many westerns that his name alone justifies watching one more B western. Hal Taliaferro could be a good guy or bad guy. His roles varied in significance from movie to movie. In this movie he serves a purpose to the plot that ties things together at the end, but he really could have been on screen a bit more. Monte Blue was another actor who could be anything, good guy or bad guy, cowboy or indian. Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm had some of Republic's heavy hitters.

In his book, Singing in the Saddle, author Douglas B. Green wrote that regional western performers would make appearances in movies to get attention for those movies in their respective parts of the country. Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm is the only screen credit at IMDB for Al Clauser and His Oklahoma Cowboys. Notice how many songs they played to showcase their music. The promotion had to work for the cowboy band as much as it did for the movie producers.

Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm has everything for the B western fans and lovers of western music including Gene's hit song, Mexicali Rose.

Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm has Gene Autry and his favorite sidekick Smiley Burnette on the trail of cattle rustlers. They've got a special interest in going after these because it's Gene's cattle they've stolen.

Unfortunately what was supposed to be comedy in this film is just general silliness. Gene and Smiley finding some abandoned clothing belonging to some notorious rustlers decide to shed their outfits and go incognito to get a line on the gang. That little bit of undercover work gets them nearly killed because the outlaws they thought were dead show up most inconveniently.

As for how they get out of it, Smiley Burnette has developed a new line of practical joke items like squirting flowers, exploding cigars and whoopee cushions. One of those actually saves Gene and Smiley.

Despite the silliness Gene has some good songs to sing including Mexicali Rose. That was a big hit in 1937 with Bing Crosby gaining one of his gold records with his version of it. But the Autry version here is OK too, especially since we get to hear the verse as well.

Gene's fans will like the movie and everyone will like the song.