Hills of Oklahoma

For instance, now, I should go to bed but my washing machine is still working and I have to wait till the end of the laundry job to put the stuff to dry out. So, to kill time, I watch this Rex Allen western, directed by RG Springsteen, the early young budding Republic Pictures. Tgis is not that lousy but so worthless, so predictable, forgettable. Destined to die hard singing cowboy B westerns, it is not really boring but a bit talkative. No, if you wish to see something exceptional, choose another Republic western, a Joseph Kane's one for instance, those B movies made for country side audiences are really hard to watch now, even for old timers. I hope my laundry will be ready after the end of this western....

Rex Allen stars in Hills Of Oklahoma which if it looks familiar is a remake of Gene Autry's Call Of The Canyon. We get two sidekicks in this one with twice the sidekick humor in the persons of Roscoe Ates and Fuzzy Knight.

The story dates somewhat because Autry's film is closer to the New Deal era which inspired it. Allen's put together a combine of ranchers to fight a railroad monopoly owned by father and son villains Robert Emmett Keane and Robert Karnes. They're meatpackers and they built and own a spur line where the ranchers ship from and they charge some really high rates.

Rex sells the others on the idea of another meat packer buying and the ranchers in this modern west going on an old fashioned cattle drive to the main rail head. The other packer is Elizabeth Risdon best known in westerns as Gabby Hayes's sparring partner in John Wayne's Tall In The Saddle. She's got pretty Elizabeth Fraser as an assistant who gets everyone's hormones going, Rex's and would you believe Fuzzy's.

There's one traitor in Rex's ranks in the person of Trevor Bardette who is making a deal for his own cattle to sell the others out.

Hills Of Oklahoma has a generous share of riding, shooting, a cattle stampede and three numbers for Rex Allen to sing. In those last days of Republic Pictures, Allen with both Gene Autry and Roy Rogers gone is Herbert J. Yates's last singing cowboy. He was a pleasant enough entertainer and after he was through as a movie singing cowboy was still making the country and western charts.

This film should please fan of the B western.

Western musical in which Rex is forced into dealing with an unscrupulous cattleman. When Rex seeks an alternative outlet for his beef, the rascally cowman infiltrates Rex's outfit in order to sabotage his organization. Finally Rex is forced to market his steers in another area which means he will have to cross 2 days of waterless wasteland. Plenty of action, singing, and comedy in this nicely done western.

In this, his second movie, the Arizona cowboy moves the action to Oklahoma. Rex and his cattle association buddies, rather than be shaken down by corrupt cattle buyer Charles Stevens (Robert Emmett Keane) and his equally villainous son Brock Stevens (Robert Karnes) decide to drive the herd to the rail head in Big Bow themselves to ship to a more fair and kindly buyer, Kate Carney (Elizabeth Risdon). Keane and Karnes aided by undercover henchman Hank Peters (Trevor Bardette) try every trick in the book to prevent Rex and the boys from delivering the cattle.

Lots of gun-play and fistfights. Action stopping musical hoedown, complete with square dancing kids, midway through the movie, gives Rex the chance to wedge in another tune. Two for the price of one "comedic relief" is provided in more than ample amounts by Dismal and Jiggs (Roscoe Ates and Fuzzy Knight). Elisabeth Fraser plays the attractive, if seldom seen, leading lady.

Its apparent after watching this movie they were still experimenting with the right ingredients for the Rex Allen series. They would change sidekicks a couple of more times before settling on Slim Pickens who took over in 1952 and continued in that role until the end of the Rex Allens in 1954.

Not one of his best, still, all in all, pretty decent Rex Allen fare. Worth a watch.