Blue Montana Skies

Harry Woods and Autry's best leading lady, June Storey set the stage as close partners of a popular guest ranch. The mood changes when the marshal (Al Bridge) informs Ol' Frog, Gene and Tully Marshall to be on the lookout for fur smugglers. Marshall makes a huge mistake "slipping one on his old partner" and goes to Crescent City alone. His demise leads Autry to the ranch with some interesting characters. The most versatile actress Dorothy Hamilton and prolific child actor Robert Winkler have amazing comic relief with Smiley. Glenn Strange, Edmund Cobb and Jack Ingram ratchet the suspense up to another level. A most enjoyable film with a great talent pool of actors, Walt Shrum and His Colorado Hillbillies and wonderful Gene Autry tunes.

There's action aplenty in this Gene Autry oater involving fur smuggling across the Candadian border. The change of locale makes for a more diversified story with a sled dog team becoming part of the main chase toward the end of the adventure. Gene even starts an avalanche to trap the fur thieves. Alaska and Canada had been used in several westerns (northerns?) including the popular "The Spoilers," even leading to a radio show "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon," but Gene was one of the first to utilize it successfully in the B western.

Frog Millhouse is around as always for the humor. This time he does have a few funny scenes, not as forced as usual. Tadpole had not been added to the cast yet. This time there's another brat (Robert Winkler) to torment Frog with every devise available from fake handcuffs to saying he's going to drive a nail through Frog's head as Millhouse pretends to be a cigar store Indian. As if the rapscallion wasn't enough a wily knife thrower (Dorothy Granger) turns up to make Frog part of her act. Frog asks what happened to the person he was replacing. She replies, "I missed, but it was the only time." Unfortunately Frog doesn't get to show his main talents as a musician and songwriter. Gene and a group called the Colorado Hillbillies do all the music. At least Gene did some of the songwriting for the movie.

Unbeknownth to Dorothy Hamilton (June Storey) the fur smugglers are using her ranch as a storage place for the stolen merchandise. Gene and his cowboys take up temporary residence at the ranch to ferret out the crooks while they separate their herd from hers, which they had purposely mixed to start with. One of the best leading ladies for B westerns, Storey is hankering to ride and rope Gene so he's back in the saddle again. With a woman such as Storey around I don't blame Gene for not riding off into the sunset. He decides to mix his herd with hers at the end. What a way to go. He lets Frog ride off instead. This time the girl and not the horse wins the heart of the hero.

A covey of bad guys fills the screen with the likes of Harry Woods, Jack Ingram and the later Frankenstein monster Glenn Strange. Also watch for the silver screen's first Tarzan Elmo Lincoln in a bit part. Tully Marshall plays the part of the old man Steve who is Gene's partner until killed leaving a clue to his murderer scratched on a rock.

Nifty Autry programmer. After all, where else can you catch a dog-sled, racing horses, a cattle stampede, and old cars, all in the same 60-minutes. Getting those wintertime snow shots really lends the movie a different appeal. Plus, Gene looks like he can drive a dog team as well as ride a horse. Seems like the bad guys are using a business front to smuggle furs across the Canadian border. Gene gets really ticked off when they murder his old friend Steve (Marshall), and so is on their trail. Burnette has some funny bits without getting too goofy, while it's an all-star line-up of bad guys—Woods, Strange, and Ingraham. The masquerade party lends color and excitement to a good script and seamless direction (Eason). No doubt about it, Gene's best years were with Republic as this energetic programmer demonstrates.

I've seen a few dozen Gene Autry films, so because of this I could tell that this was just an okay movie and he was capable of much better. Now this isn't to say it's bad...but apart from the supposed location, there isn't much to distinguish this one...particularly the music.

The story begins in Montana near the Canadian border. Gene's partner, Steve (Tully Marshall) is riding to town when he comes upon a group of fur smugglers. They kill him and only later do Gene and Frog find him. The dead man has scratched an 'HH' on the rock near him....and it looks like the brand used by a nearby ranch. What's next? See the film.

Apart from seeing a few Mounties and a sled dog chase, the film is pretty much a by the book sort of thing with a few okay songs. Nothing bad about it...nothing particularly good either. Great for fans of Autry films...but others might want to find one of his better ones to see first, such as "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" or "In Old Santa Fe".

By the way, 'Montana' in the film is actually Lone Pine, California--where most of Autry's westerns were filmed. Amazingly enough, this part of California is due east of Los Angeles...yet had mountains, rugged terrain and snow much of the year...perfect to substitute for many locales ranging from Mexico to Canada.

Gene Autry was way ahead of his time in almost every way. If you watch enough of his movies and The Gene Autry show you will see many actors and actresses who went on to be stars in their own right. These include such giants as Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger), Jimmy Durante, and, of course Gail Davis who went on to star in the Annie Oakley series.

Also notice his relationship with women, which was way ahead of its time, as well as his treatment of "minorities", such as the Mexican young men, and others in his movies and TV show---way ahead of his time. Take, for example, his speech to the children in the school house about the Mexican boy being as American as the rest of the children.

But far more important than the people who came up through Gene Autry, is the music that came from Gene Autry. The show on the top 40 rated Gene as one of the top 40 most important country/western singers/songwriters. Roy Rogers did not make that list, but his wife, Dale Evans, did with her song "Happy Trails to You until we meet again", which was rated the number one country/western song of all time, and rightly so. Gene's "Back in the Saddle Again", my favorite of all time, was also rated very high.

The song "Blue Skies of Montana", which is early in the show, is, to me, a classic that I find myself humming a lot. Maybe that has something to do with the time we spend in Montana, but I really doubt that is the reason.

Those that rank Gene Autry's movies low have no understanding of his pioneer role in movies. Gene was a star long before modern technology and acting provided the modern movies today, which are, arguably, better movies. To compare Gene's movies to those that followed him and built on his genius is absolutely wrong. That's like comparing an F16 to the Wright Bros. airplane.

I would encourage voters to remember the times, place, and technology, as well as the type that Gene set, before giving him a low score.

Gene Autry is the ONLY Hollywood star to ever get five stars on the Hollywood walk of fame. No one else will probably ever get that kind of recognition for their work in show business.