Silver Canyon

"Silver Canyon" is a film with a better than usual cast for a B-western, as in addition to Gene Autry and Pat Buttram as his sidekick, Jim Davis and Bob Steele (two very good and familiar western stars in their on right) are in the movie as well.

The story was inspired by Quantrill's Raiders...a group of Confederate cavalry guerillas who were not exactly officially fighting for the South. They were, essentially, bandits who burned, robbed and killed in the name of the Confederacy....and even many in the South saw them as outlaws. Groups with names SIMILAR to Quantrill are a relatively common thing in old B-westerns. In this case, it's McQuarrie's Raiders. And, unlike Quantrill''s (who mostly were in the Midwest around Cincinnati), these folks are out west in the Utah region in this film.

The story begins with yet another outrage by McQuarrie's Raiders during the Civil War. Folks in town are excited about this, as they are mostly pro-Union (the North). In this fervor, there's a strong push for men to volunteer for the army...but Gene is told that he'd better serve the Union by investigating McQuarrie as well as being a scout. Idiot Pat, on the other hand, volunteers because he thinks Gene will be in the service....and soon goes AWOL to follow Gene in his investigations. What they find is that McQuarrie and his men are so successful because they are now posing as Union Cavalry! But, unfortunately, no one seems to believe them.

This is a better than average Gene Autry film. Part of it is the cast but much is because the story was not typical for one of his westerns. It also helped that the ending was VERY spectacular...one of the most explosive in B-movie history!