The Singing Cowgirl

Dorothy Page stars in the first of three westerns for Grand National. She owns a ranch, which she manages with the help of only Vince Barnett. When her neighbors are killed, she investigates with the aid of wandering cowpoke Dave O'Brien. It turns out that there's gold on the ranch, and crooked lawyer Stanley Price wants it.

Miss Page sings three songs in a good voice; she had risen to public notice as a singer on Paul Whiteman's radio show, but short periods with Universal and Republic hadn't ignited a major career. Grand National was collapsing following the disaster of SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT, and someone decided the time of making a lady the star of a singing cowboy movie had come. Unhappily, the script was blah, Miss Page's line readings are mechanical and the front office was still under the delusion that Mr. Barnett was funny onscreen. Visually it's fine. DP Mack Stengler offers a couple of trucking shots that are evocative, and Miss Page sings one of her songs in a very effective silhouette. However, she ws not going to save Grand National; after the third of these movies, she retired to private life.

Vince Barnett was a supporting character actor whose shtick was being really annoying. Now I am not talking funny annoying...just annoying. I agree with the review by boblipton....somehow Grand National seems to be under the delusion that Barnett is funny...which he clearly isn't. This is a major strike against the film.

Another problem is that although the film is called 'The Singing CowGIRL', the lady in question (Dorothy Page) seems more like a supporting character, with David O'Brien doing most of the rugged he-man cowboy stuff and Page mostly singing or waiting to be saved by O'Brien.

A final problem is that the film was made by Grand National. This 'poverty row studio' is really among the very worst, with productions from rival Monogram and Republic looking like Oscar-contenders by comparison.

So, with these three problems working against it, you have a B-western that is, at best, just okay. It's watchable if you like the genre, but it's certainly not as good as the average western of the day.