The Cowboy and the Indians

The assumption is that back in the old films, American Indians were always on the warpath and were basically evil. While that might be true in a few films, most westerns (especially the B- westerns) made a much worse mistake--they acted as if the West was completely independent of these indigenous people. In other words, they were mostly absent from the films. Because of this, it was great to see "The Cowboy and the Indians"---a highly unusual film for its time due to its focus on the natives as well as its sensitive portrayal of them. Because of this, this film manages to rise above the humble roots as a B-movie.

When the film begins, Gene (Gene Autry) has just bought a ranch and he is angry. After all, the local tribe has their sheep grazing on the land and they are clearly trespassing. In a huff, Gene goes to confront them. However, his anger quickly dissipates when he sees the sorry state that they are in--with malnutrition and illness wracking these people. Soon, he's determined to investigate why they are so poor and hungry. It seems that a scum-bag named Martin and his cronies are exploiting the natives and are stealing from these already destitute people. Gene's anger has been aroused and with a nice doctor and a war hero member of the tribe (Jay Silverheels), he's determined to bring justice to the west.

Like most of Autry's westerns, this is set in the present day and the film goes way out of its way to present the Indians far better than they'd been shown in the past. They are seen as heroes, patriots and all-around decent folk. Additionally, while they need help, they are not helpless nor are they stupid--as the two leading American Indians in the film are extremely well- educated and do NOT talk in broken English (this must have been a relief for Silverheels who OFTEN was forces to utter lines that made him sound a bit like Charlie Chan--with very few objects in sentences!). Overall, a wonderful change from the typical western of the day and a film well worth seeing.

By the way, if you do see the film look for Hank Peterson as one of Gene's friends--he later played Mr. Zipfel on "Green Acres". Also, at the end, Gene croons one of his biggest hits from earlier in his career, "Here Comes Santa Claus"--and it's a classic.

One of the interesting things about the picture is that Jay Silverheels plays a WW2 vet (Lakohna) living on the reservation and Clayton Moore is one of the thugs who is sent by the local thief/merchant to rob the Navahos. He steals and kills some sheep, and then mugs a chief for a squash blossom necklace. He and Autry do most of the fighting in the film.

The kicker is, the movie, and the premier episode of The Lone Ranger, both arrived on Sept 15, 1949.

An interesting moment comes when Autry sees Lakohna's medal and asks, "Guadacanal?" to which Silverheels replies, "Iwo Jima."

Gene Autry is upset with the Indians leaving their reservation and helping themselves to his grazing land, and sometimes his stock. But when an old Indian woman collapses, he helps take her to where she can be tended by the local doctor, Sheila Ryan, and discovers she is suffering form malnutrition. He discovers that the local agent, Frank Richards, is not only cheating the Indians out of their money, but has a sideline in buying their precious goods cheap and selling them to a collector for big dollars. Gene prepares a report for Washington, but Richards is keeping busy. He almost kills Chief Yowlatchie, takes his necklace which is the sign of his rulership, and tries to pin the crime on Yowlatchie's successor, Jay Silverheels.

It's nice to see an Autry vehicle which is about something real, and with several members of the cast actual Indians. Silverheels has a particularly good role. He would not appear in many more B westerns for a while; the same day this movie was released, the first episode of TV's THE LONE RANGER premiered, starring him as Tonto, and fellow cast Clayton Moore -- here 'Henchman Luke' -- as the Ranger.

There isn't much singing here, but Gene does sing "Here Comes Santa Claus."

Although The Cowboy And The Indians is not the usual run of Gene Autry B western, it's still a good film. And if the Autry name bought in the kiddie trade, good because showed a film that has a fine and sensitive portrayal of the American Indian in modern times.

The film has Gene buying a ranch, but having a lot of problems because the neighboring Indians from a reservation are grazing their own herds their and occasionally stealing some of his. But there's a real good reason for that. They're kept in near starvation because of a real sleazeball running the reservation trading post. Frank Richards is one of the scurviest villains that Gene ever had in one of his westerns. When Dr. Sheila Ryan diagnoses a case of malnutrition for an old Indian woman that Gene brings in, Gene has a bad attack of social conscience.

The Cowboy and The Indians also features both Jay Silverheels and Clayton Moore, the future Tonto and The Lone Ranger, on opposite sides, Silverheels as Crown Prince of his tribe for want of a better term and Moore as one of Richards's henchmen. They'd be teaming on The Lone Ranger Show on TV for the first time in 1949 the same year this film came out.

The film ends slightly early so that an appendage of sorts is attached with Gene singing his hit Here Comes Santa Claus and the choir of Indian children from the reservation doing Silent Night. It must have been an after thought at Columbia Pictures in the way it's tacked on to the film, but still nice.

Definitely one of the best of Gene Autry's post World War II films.

I've seen a number of Gene Autry movies and, in my opinion, this is NOT one of the better. Maybe I'm just becoming too negative. Aha!!! I know what's missing: the sidekick. Minimal comic relief. Then there're those stereotypically-wrong characteristics of the Indians. (I know...portrayals were very different in 1949.) At least they're not the villains here. Quite the contrary: this shows how they were victimized in yet another way. At first, Gene is upset by their raids, but he later learns why, which is then still unbeknownst to the local constabulary. So, for awhile there, Gene's on the outs with the law. Interestingly, this flick contains BOTH Clayton Moore (as a bad guy) AND Jay Silverheels (as a college-educated Indian) BEFORE they were The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Also, this film must have been released near Christmas 'cause - get ready for a couple of song-standards of that season toward it's end. Some other tunes were a little TOO hokey and juvenile for my tastes, even taking into account the behavior of the era.