Springtime in the Rockies

It all begins when Gene and Smiley pull some tricks in trying to save their boss lady, the beautiful and talented Polly Rowles from sheep herding in cattle country. Seasoned performer George Chesebro superbly plays the overzealous cowpoke enforcing the law of the land. One of the great villains and infantry man Al Bridge does great in playing the unscrupulous business man as does Edward Hearn in trying to frame Gene. Frog has probably his best song (and funniest) singing 'And How'. Ula Love flawlessly adds the comic relief in breaking down the resistance of the hired hands, "Well, pards, I reckon you hombres are figgerin' on a rip-snortin' bang-up shindig tonight".Joseph Kane does another admirable directing job and Champion has some well-earned scene stealing moments.

"Springtime in the Rockies" is a light-weight B-movie starring Gene Autry--the singing cowboy. As you'd expect, he sang a few songs during this hour-long film. However, one of them (the first in the film) had a rather strange setup. When the ranchers are angry at someone because he brought sheep onto the range, Gene breaks into song. Why? Because, according to him, "It's hard to sing and be mean at the same time"--among the lamest reasons I can recall in a cowboy film! Such is the sort of stuff you'll see and hear in this silly but enjoyable film.

Soon after this kerfuffle settles, the woman who owns the ranch where Gene is a foreman arrives from back East. She has never been to the ranch and she and her college friends are occasionally annoying caricatures--and Gene decides to have fun at their expense. So, instead of showing them to the beautiful ranch house, he takes them to a broken-down shack which he tells them IS the ranch house. Before he can tell them about his big joke, however, the goofy owner buys sheep! What's Gene to do? While the film is a bit fun in spots and is a rather inconsequential film, it may offend some. Again and again, the young women are the butt of jokes, as they are 'silly feminists'. While it's true that sometimes Gene and his friend Frog (Smiley Burnett) get theirs sometimes, in the end it's up to the men to save these poor women. And, the resolution to the problems seems to come way too quickly and easily. But, the songs are generally nice, Burnett makes for a nice sidekick and the film has a few good moments. On balance, a decent time-passer but not much more.

Better than average programmer. Good action, classic plot and personable leading lady (Polly Rowles). College girl Rowles inherits spread in ranching country with three college friends. Naturally everybody's looking to take advantage of these greenhorns, even Gene when he finds out they want to graze root-eating sheep instead of less destructive beeves. Complications fly thick and fast and maybe you can follow the twists better than I could. But it doesn't really matter because the appeal of these cowboy quickies lies elsewhere than in the logic of the plots. Some good scenery, hard riding, and the great Tom London and George Chesbro in featured parts. Highlights include scaring the girls until one decides to shoot, singing the meanness out of Chesbro (a nifty little scene), and the classic title tune. It may not be High Noon, but for me, it's a darn entertaining 60 minutes.

I did a review of a Roy Rogers/Dale Evans film Utah and I said at the time that it wasn't one of their best. Before seeing Springtime In The Rockies I saw that Utah was a remake of this film. In terms of the story it isn't any better than Utah was.

Mainly because Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette decide to pull a dumb prank on Polly Rowles who's come west with some friends and thinks that a beat up piece of scrub land that Gene owns is her ranch. She actually owns a pretty nice spread that Gene is foreman of. But in her ignorance of the code of the west, Polly's bought some sheep and intends to raise them in cattle country.

Gene and Smiley get hoisted on their own petards as a very shrewd Al Bridge decides he can trick Rowles as well into selling the only piece of land she can legally sell. It was as dumb here as it was with Roy and Dale in Utah.

What makes this film better than Utah was the presence of the title song and another Autry standard You're The Only Star In My Blue Heaven that Gene sings in the film. Both sold quite a few 78 RPMs back in the day.

Gene's hardly a cowboy hero in this one, just an overage juvenile prankster who should have known better.

Pleasing oater with music has Rowles as a young woman who inherits the ranch Autry takes care of, then on impulse decides to ranch sheep there. All the other ranchers complain, and Autry manages to trick her into thinking she owns a much smaller ranch to contain the damage. Trouble comes when one whiley rancher uncovers the plan and tries to exploit it to get her to sell the land.

Minimal plot, but good action and a very nice setting well photographed. Autry sings some songs.