PUBLIC COWBOY No. 1 (1937)

Unlike Gene Autry, the top singing-cowboy star of the ‘30s (he also introduced ‘Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer’), Roy Rogers, who took over Autry’s star spot at Republic Pictures in the ‘40s, retains a lot more name recognition, probably from all the ‘camp’ elements attached to him: Stuffed Trigger!; Waxy, unchanging face; Improbable first-rate vocal chops; Dale!*  The kiddie matinee fare both made not so different, much the same Republic team on board.  (Contract cinematographer Jack Marta stayed at Republic to the bitter end.)  But to get back to Autry, this typical outing sees Gene as deputy to an aging sheriff when high tech cattle rustlers start using airplane spotters and short-wave radio to keep ahead of the law.  Gene’s opposites-attract gal is 20-yr-old Ann Rutherford, recently seen dating Mickey Rooney’s Andy Hardy, she's the local newspaper editor; and Smiley Burnette does comic relief, dressing in a cow-suit at the climax.  (Yes, not cowboy, cow.)  Director Joseph Kane, who probably did a hundred of these things, knows how to shoot a horse chase and shows no shame stopping everything for Autry’s no more than pleasant voice in a few throwaway songs.  What makes Autry different from Rogers, and worth a look, is how he seems to be in on the joke whether singing, fighting or riding to the rescue.  Almost a ‘meta’ self-regard.  Or would be if you could only SEE it.  Unfortunately, Republic trimmed their one-hour films down to about 50" to fit tv syndication time slots and tossed the trims.  Yikes!  Nowadays, hard to find anything but those subfusc tv edits.  Boo!  A few of the Roy Rogers have been restored from surviving original elements (and look a wow - https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/03/sunset-in-west-1950.html), but Autry a lost cause for now.  Pity.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *The more you learn about Dale Evans (third Mrs. Roy Rogers, BTW), the weirder she seems.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Releasing later films thru Columbia, MULE TRAIN/’50 is the best Autry seen here.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/07/mule-train-1950.html