IMDB indicates that "Bells of Capistrano" is 78 minutes. However, the restored version runs 73 minutes and I have no idea if it ever actually ran for 78 or not.
One problem I often see in B-westerns, particularly Gene Autry and Roy Rogers films, is the way too many women are written...particularly love interests for the heroes. Too often, the women are hot-headed and annoying....as if the writers are trying to say that these so-called liberated women need to have a he-man to tame them! Wow...talk about sexist. Now for me the problem is that these cliched women come just too often in the stories and are two one-dimensional. About the worst of them is here in "Bells of Capistrano"...and Jennifer Benton (Virginia Grey) is unbelievably angry at Gene....so much so that my wife kept complaining about the writing of the film.
When the story begins, Gene is fighting with some jerks who attacked him and ends up being briefly jailed. There he meets the McCrackens, two older show people who have fallen on hard times. So, Gene volunteers to be a crooner for the outfit the McCrackens work for...and soon he's a huge success. But Jennifer Benton is the idiot owner of this rodeo and again and again, she's inexplicably angry at Gene. For example, Johnson is a nasty brute with a rival rodeo...and he attacks Gene. Gene defends himself and soon Benton is yelling at Gene!!! Later, Johnson returns with many armed thugs and destroys much of Benton's show...and she then yells at Gene! Now these thugs had clubs and guns and are destroying everything...and she yells at Gene?!?! Huh?!? I'm REALLY confused! Oh, and did I mention that she is also dating Johnson's boss?! I also knew as I watched that the formula also means Gene will just put up with it until, ultimately, this angry wench gives in to his charms and she realizes her boyfriend is a putz!
Despite some very bad writing, is it worth seeing? Well, if you just want to watch Gene sing some nice tunes and punch people, then you can enjoy it on that level. But for lovers of his films, you can't help but feel disappointed by this one...all because of that bizarro woman that was, apparently, written by gophers!
