If you've seen enough Gene Autry films you know that the title usually doesn't have anything to do with the story. It's generally a convenient backdrop for the opening song, usually with Gene riding Champion into view for the opening scene. That tradition is maintained here before the action gets going with Gene, Smiley and the Cass County Boys helping out pretty Jen Larrabee (Gail Davis), the proprietress of a toll road on the way in and out of Lone Hill.
The story offers up it's expected plot elements as a couple of town villains scheme to buy out Miss Larrabee's toll station by hook or crook. Jen's father was murdered a year earlier and she's fighting an uphill battle to keep the toll station going as the local ore smelter and freight lines conspire to shut down the operation, basically by refusing to use it. This didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, as the fifty cent toll to get through wasn't going to break the bank for anyone as far as I could tell. I know, money had a different value back in the days of the Old West, but come on.
The story gets some mileage out of a ruse that Gene perpetuates by impersonating a Texas Ranger after various folks spot the fake Ranger badge he's wearing. It's actually a part of his outfit as a member of a singing group by that name, which is a bit curious too because they're also called the Cass County Boys in the story as well. Smiley Burnette is on hand, and you'll probably wonder as I did why they ever wrote him into the story as Gail Davis's fiancée. There's really no romantic entanglement between the two, nor between Jen and Autry for that matter, even if it's implied here and there. I guess it's just something the film makers felt was necessary for matinée fans of the day.
I was following the story along pretty well until the very end when all of a sudden that huge trestle came out of nowhere engulfed in flames as bad guys Doc Judson (Grandon Rhodes) and McQuaid (Kenne Duncan) made their final play to take over the toll line. What was that all about? At the same time, I couldn't figure out why Smiley just didn't go 'Whoa' to the horses pulling the stagecoach - he could have prevented it from going over the cliff!
I don't want to get too picky here, knowing that these stories were written in a simpler time for a generally young audience. What was actually a pretty cool thing to see was one of those old time, huge circular irons used as a fire alarm early in the picture. My town had one of those on display when I was a kid growing up in the Fifties, but even by then it had already been replaced by a siren. The closest thing to a siren here was Sheila Ryan as an opportunistic saloon gal trying to stay one step ahead of the law.
The story offers up it's expected plot elements as a couple of town villains scheme to buy out Miss Larrabee's toll station by hook or crook. Jen's father was murdered a year earlier and she's fighting an uphill battle to keep the toll station going as the local ore smelter and freight lines conspire to shut down the operation, basically by refusing to use it. This didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, as the fifty cent toll to get through wasn't going to break the bank for anyone as far as I could tell. I know, money had a different value back in the days of the Old West, but come on.
The story gets some mileage out of a ruse that Gene perpetuates by impersonating a Texas Ranger after various folks spot the fake Ranger badge he's wearing. It's actually a part of his outfit as a member of a singing group by that name, which is a bit curious too because they're also called the Cass County Boys in the story as well. Smiley Burnette is on hand, and you'll probably wonder as I did why they ever wrote him into the story as Gail Davis's fiancée. There's really no romantic entanglement between the two, nor between Jen and Autry for that matter, even if it's implied here and there. I guess it's just something the film makers felt was necessary for matinée fans of the day.
I was following the story along pretty well until the very end when all of a sudden that huge trestle came out of nowhere engulfed in flames as bad guys Doc Judson (Grandon Rhodes) and McQuaid (Kenne Duncan) made their final play to take over the toll line. What was that all about? At the same time, I couldn't figure out why Smiley just didn't go 'Whoa' to the horses pulling the stagecoach - he could have prevented it from going over the cliff!
I don't want to get too picky here, knowing that these stories were written in a simpler time for a generally young audience. What was actually a pretty cool thing to see was one of those old time, huge circular irons used as a fire alarm early in the picture. My town had one of those on display when I was a kid growing up in the Fifties, but even by then it had already been replaced by a siren. The closest thing to a siren here was Sheila Ryan as an opportunistic saloon gal trying to stay one step ahead of the law.