The film begins around the Georgia/Florida border. Ranchers and the 'Turpentines' (local hill people) are at odds with each other. In the middle is Gene Autry—who tries to get both sides to see reason and avoid an all out war. Unfortunately, he ends up ticking off both sides and Gene's father disowns him. As for Gene, he lands on his feet—becoming a rodeo champ and singing sensation. When he returns home after a few years, things have NOT improved but have become a lot worse. So, it's up to our star to find out who's behind the fight—who is stirring up BOTH sides as well as why.
The idea of setting a Gene Autry movie in the Georgia/Florida region was very good—a nice change of pace. After all, back in the 1930s (and even today) northern Florida is home to many ranches and horses are very common there. However, and this is a BIG however, the film looked exactly like any other Gene Autry film—with cowboys, dusty trails and even a canyon—yet there are no canyons in Florida or Georgia and they are also not dusty/desert locales. In fact, they have TONS of rain, foliage, palm trees and the like—none of which you see in "Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge"! It's obviously just another California back lot production and the filmmakers took no efforts to even try to make it look like the film was set in the East. To me, this was incredibly lazy and brings up a major problem with many B-westerns—they were produced so quickly that shabby mistakes are too common.
Another problem in the film is the singing. While Autry always had a very nice voice, one of the other singing groups (the ladies who sing at about 34 minutes into the film) are just terrible—and I found myself speeding past their performance. Autry's yodeling, while unpleasant, was at least quite skilled.
All in all, a very disappointing film with little to recommend it. After all, who wants to see a 'western' set in the East Coast where none of this clearly took place?!
