Mountain Rhythm

Cavanaugh and McCauley plan to buy at auction all the nearby ranches so that they can extend their resort and turn it into a city and thereby larger tourist attraction. Gene and the other neighboring ranchers plan to save their ranch by pooling their money together. Gene is robbed of the money, but plans to have the ranchers round up their cattle for market in order to raise the cash. However Cavanaugh has plans to stop this as well. Its up to Gene, Frog, Ma Hutchins, and a band of hobos to save the day. Fun Autry movie from his early Republic period, with a bit more action and fight scenes than you would expect from one of Gene's movies, however there is a bit more music (5 songs, plus one medley sung during a hayride) but it doesn't slow down the pacing of the film (good direction by Eason) that much. At times the film seems to have reached what it could, but lo and behold, there's more. Smiley is not annoying (thank heavens) as he sometimes can be, as the comic relief (scant, if any) is provided by Ferris Taylor and Jack Pennick as two hobos. Rating, based on B westerns, 7.