The Singing Cowboy

"The Singing Cowboy" is one of Gene Autry's early films. Republic was promoting Gene, already a popular radio entertainer and recording artist, as the singing cowboy, hence the title of this picture. True to the title, there are eleven songs included in 54 minutes; yet still plenty of action for which the studio was famous, with some of the best stunt work around.

Frog gets to show off his talents as a consummate musician and singer, much better than his rather sophomoric humor. He plays a musical instrument of his own invention, the Jassackaphone (bawderized version of Jackassaphone). The jackass is the one with the musical contraption strapped to its back; Frog is the one standing by the jackass, or is it the other way around? Judge for yourself.

This is a typical, rather routine, Gene Autry outing that should still prove worthwhile for his many fans. Gene and his ranch hands use a new invention called television (this is 1936) to raise money for a little girl's, Lou Ann Stevens (Ann Gillis, aka Ann Gilles), operation who was trampled by horses when the barn burned following the murder of her father, Gene's boss. The meanie behind it all is the ranch foreman, Martin, played by the gifted actor Lon Chaney, Jr., who was forever in the shadow of his legendary father. Martin is determined to thwart Gene's efforts to get the money, knowing that the ranch has gold on it. In the process of putting together "The Covered Wagon Coffee Caravan," Gene falls for Helen Blake (Lois Wilde), determined to break into show business by hiding her true identity as the daughter of the sponsor, Henry Blake (Harvey Clark). There is a different type ending than in other Gene Autry westerns which makes "The Singing Cowboy" a must-see for fans.

Besides the typical humorous interplay between Gene and Frog, improving with each picture, Earle Hodgins (portraying Prof. Pandow), who made a small fortune playing a carnival barker-type con artist, is in top form, given more lines than usual. A real hoot comes near the end when Hodgins has to finish a song started by Gene. Lois Wilde as Helen Blake, a tenderfoot posing as a cowgirl, shares some amusing moments with Gene. When Gene asks what breed cows she has, she replies, "Why, contented cows." An African American trio headed by Fred 'Snowflake' Toones performs a funny routine using cow horns as musical instruments, receiving less stereotyping than one would expect from a 1930's Hollywood film.

Gene's featured song for "The Singing Cowboy" is "Rainbow Trail," not as memorable as many of his movie tunes, but still pleasant fluff. By this time, Gene was concentrating more on crooning than on his earlier Jimmie Rodgers blues influenced singing, which at times even included yodeling.

While I like watching Gene Autry films, I must admit that "The Singing Cowboy" is a bit of a disappointment. First, the villain (Lon Chaney Jr.) is pretty dull. Second, and more importantly, the film is awfully schmaltzy...much more so than usual.

When the story begins, a rancher is killed and Gene becomes the guardian of the dead man's young daughter. However, when a baddie starts a fire, she is injured and needs an expensive brain operation (I am not kidding)! To earn the money for this, Gene begins performing on a television show sponsored by a coffee company. Later, the grown daughter of this coffee magnate disappears....and appears singing in Gene's show. How does this relate to the expensive operation? Tune in and see.

Apart from the film being very forward-thinking with its television angle (at a point in time when it was definitely in the experimental stage), the film is bogged down with a cute keep needing some unspecified expensive brain operation! This is schmatziness to the nth degree...and really seriously hurt the film. Instead of being tough and action-packed, it's almost like a parody of a B-western...just the sort of sticky stuff I hate and I am pretty sure audiences of the day felt the same way! As for Chaney, he later developed into a decent actor but here he is completely wooden and unconvincing.

Oh, and one other thing....early in the film when the girl's father is killed, he confronts the evil Martin (Chaney) in the act of stealing and announces that he's going to the sheriff and will put Martin in jail for this....all the while Martin is holding a gun!! Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's happening next....and this scene is written terribly.

1936's "The Singing Cowboy" was a notable early effort from Republic's Gene Autry, with the added dimension of television in its infancy along with its nearly a dozen tunes. Smiley Burnette is back as Frog Millhouse, here distracted by bad luck omens (he carries a horse shoe that's more trouble than it's worth), leading to the opening murder, as Lon Chaney's Martin shoots his partner to gain ownership of the ranch, and the hidden gold mine that only he and his henchmen know about. Unfortunately, the ranch has been left to the dead man's young daughter, Gene her legal guardian, in need of $10,000 for an operation that will enable her to walk again. While Gene and his band become television performers under the banner 'The Covered Wagon Coffee Caravan,' the crooked Martin seeks to make certain that their bank loan is turned down. For Chaney, he remained stuck in an endless rut of villainous roles in his fifth year in Hollywood, preferable to his next two years as a Fox bit player, preceding his breakout success in "Of Mice and Men." Lois Wilde is a fetching heroine, Ann Gillis the child actress just starting out as competition for Shirley Temple.

By this time in 1936, Gene Autry was being known in all the theaters as the "singing cowboy." So this was the perfect title for the movie.

We get to hear Gene sing a number of songs in this one, as he and his musical buddies try to raise money for a much-needed operation on the little girl whose father was Gene's partner but who was murdered by a bad guy (Lon Chaney Jr.) trying to take over the ranch. The barn where the killing took place was then set on fire, and the little girl rushed into the barn to try to save her kittens, but was badly injured. Gene and the other guys are shown rushing into the barn to try to save the livestock, with Autry rescuing both the child and her pets. This was only one of several instances in Autry movies where Gene rushes into a burning barn to save animals/people, and in every one, the singing cowboy appears to have done the stunt himself. Same with his rescuing people from drowning in several other of his movies; in every scene like that, it's easy to tell that, yes, it really is Gene, swimming through the water and dragging the person to safety.

Anyway, Gene and his musical buddies gain quick popularity, partly through the use of television, which was absolutely in its infancy in 1936. It wasn't officially recognized by the federal government until 1939. After some plot twists and turns common to B-Westerns, and some riding and fighting, Gene's guys come up with the money, the little girl gets her much-needed surgery, and the ending is happy.

And one more thing about Autry's movies in general: This one, and a number of others, show how sincerely Gene liked children, and was always comfortable working with them. This isn't the best movie he ever made, but it's well worth watching.