Review by planktonrules

"On Top of Old Smoky" is a film made during Gene Autry's final year making full-length films. On the positive side, the print for this movie is great...clean and crisp. On the negative, the writing seems very weak and confusing. As a result, it's one of his lesser films.

Normally in Gene Autry films, he's a paragon of virtue and would never lie. Inexplicably, here he poses as a Texas Ranger but isn't! Why? Well, supposedly he plays a Ranger in some stage act and Smiley has convinced others that he really is a lawman....and Gene doesn't work all that hard to convince people otherwise.

The story involves a woman who owns a toll road (something odd in the old west). But some local shark wants her land because of its mineral rights...and he stokes the locals into fighting to stop the road once and for all.

So, Gene lies and pretends to be a lawman...and it's something that just didn't fit his squeaky clean image in other films. For me, this is a deal breaker...making the movie a tough one to like. Additionally, I felt that the townsfolks were right in many ways...making the plot a bit muddled.