Riders in the Sky

Being a twenty two year old female, westerns from before my Mom was born aren't what you'd expect me to be watching... but here I am. I have to confess, I love Gene Autry and I love cheesy old westerns. Cheesiness is part of their charm! The Singing Cowboy- how much more Americana can you get? I adore Pat Buttram, too, and I have to admit that he's half the reason I had this movie ordered special from FYE. Anyway, I'm a huge sucker for this song and for old-timey westerns, and if this sounds like your cup of tea go for it- and if it doesn't, give it a shot anyway. It's adorable, funny, stirring, and it's got some cool fight scenes too. One minute you're laughing at Pat Buttram getting throwed off Gene's horse Champ, and the next minute you're biting your fingernails going "oh no he's going for his gun!" or something like that. Go on, watch it, it's fun.

I was never a Gene Autry fan, being a Roy Rogers fan from age 5, but of all the Autry movies, I recall this one. Tom London who plays the dying prospector tells Gene that the "Ghost Riders" are coming after him. Autry goes to the window and looks out to see the image of shadowy riders coming through the clouds. At this point, Gene sings the song. It is introduced more logically into the plot than any of his other songs. There is also a reprisal at the end of the movie. Even today, when I look up into a stormy sky, the song comes immediately to mind. It was written by Stan Jones, an ex-park ranger, who appeared in Autry's films and who also wrote another Autry hit, "Whirlwind." Tom London, who had appeared in several Republic films as Sunset Carson's sidekick, has said that this particular scene got him other parts in movies and television.

Due to the success of the song "Ghost Riders in the Sky", this Gene Autry was altered just before release...adding the popular song as well as changing a few scenes to include references to Ghost Riders. It is a terrific song...one of the best country western songs of the era.

Gene and his sidekick (Pat Buttram) have decided to buy their own spread and raise cattle after Gene inherits a small fortune. So, he quits his job with the City Attorney's office and is ready to begin his new life when a friend of his is convicted of murdering a gambler. Gene knows the guys involved and believes the defendant that he killed the man in self-defense. But another local gambler (Robert Livingston) is not about to let there be a real investigation because he is deeply involved in evil and corruption. Can Gene get to the bottom of all this and make things right?

The cast for this film is very familiar. Not only do you have Autry and one of his more popular sidekicks, but the film also has appearances by Gloria Henry (the mother on the "Dennis the Menace" TV show), Alan Hale Jr. (of "Gilligan's Island"), Hank Patterson (like Buttram, of "Green Acres") and Robert Livingston. Livingston is interesting as earlier in his career he played heroes in B-westerns, such as in the Three Mesquiteers series. Here, however, he's a baddie and he did play villains in some of his later movies.

So is this any good? Well, as I already mentioned, the opening song was one of Autry's best. As for the acting and writing, the biggest weakness I noticed was Gloria Henry's character. Like too many women in B-westerns, she is inexplicably angry and argues a lot with Autry...even though he's done absolutely nothing wrong. I've seen this in too many other westerns and it is a bit of a cliché. It does, sadly, weaken the story a bit. Otherwise, it's a pretty decent western with a reasonably interesting story. If she'd been less angry, I would have scored this one a 6.

Steve Darrell is found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison, though he claims it was self-defense. County Attorney Roy Gordon's investigators, Gene Autry and Pat Buttram find out the hard way when Darrell's daughter, Gloria Henry, chucks stuff at Gene in the mistaken belief he's Gordon. Autry doesn't care. He's inherited $16,000, and he and Buttram have quit to go buy a ranch, following Miss Henry to the town where her father's ranch used to be. Now she's a real estate agent, and everything in the town is controlled by Robert Livingston. He wants Autry's money, too, but is it going to be so easy to take it?

There's some good atmosphere in this movie, even if it's shoehorned in by having Autry sing "Ghost Riders in the Sky" three times, have someone hum it, and dying Tom London talk about the legend that inspired it. Gene also sings "Streets of Laredo" and another song, but the production money is in having a chorus back Gene in the title song and running it through the reverb.

London was one of those Gower Gulch cowboys with more than 600 screen appearances to his credit, although usually it was just as a background character, often a barfly; he was a comic sidekick to Sunset Carson for a while. He died in 1963 at the age of 74.

Just before resigning the investigator business to open a cattle ranch with his pal Chuckawalla, Gene Autry (played by himself) takes one final case and agrees to help Anne Lawson clear her father, Ralph, on a false murder charge.

The famous song adds an unusual quality to the Gene Autry Western, though the link between ghost riders in the sky and the intrigue on offer is tenuous at best. Still a fairly engaging Autry western, with a limited number slow spots. There's some interesting characters, especially Mary Beth Hughes' character, who is the lover of the bad guy. She looks like she is out of a film noir.