Western Jamboree

"Western Jamboree" is an unusual B-western because it has two simultaneous plots...one VERY familiar and the other is just plain weird! When the story begins, some crooks are out looking for helium. It turns out that it's on a ranch that Gene Autry manages and instead of telling him and trying to work out a deal, they try to secretly tap into the helium deposit and steal it in order to sell it to some evil foreign power*. At the same time, Gene is distracted as he's trying to help out Dad Haskell. It seems Haskell has a daughter living back east and he's lied to her...telling her that he owns the ranch. However, he's just a lowly ranch hand...but inexplicably, Gene and the other ranch hands decide to help Dad trick the daughter. However, when she arrives, things are not rosy. First, she's engaged to a real jerk-face who hates the west. Second, she's a very haughty woman and orders Gene around like he's some sort of slave. With all this going on, is there any chance Gene will realize that the helium thieves are at work? And, what will they do when the REAL absentee owner arrives?

The plot where Gene and the boys lie to help Dad Haskell has been used before in other Bs, though I cannot recall which times it was used...mostly because the titles of nearly all B-westerns had nothing to do with the actual plots! Trust me, though...the plot is VERY familiar.

So is this odd dual-plotted film good? Well, the music is certainly very good...a bit better than usual thanks to some supporting singers in addition to Gene and Smiley. And, the plots are enjoyable...even if one of them is very familiar to fans of B-westerns.

*Before WWII, the United States was the only nation with the technology to use and exploit helium. The US kept this to themselves...as there were fears that other countries might use it for evil. In particular, the Germans were still using the highly volatile hydrogen in their airships...and the inert helium would have made them much safer...and more dangerous to their enemies. So, this weird plot actually was pretty timely in 1938...particularly as this was the year that the Hindenberg exploded after completing a cross-Atlantic journey.

Those scenes in the saloon are little musical gems. I especially liked "Cielito Lindo" and "When the Bloom is on the Sage". And catch that clever novelty act where Joe Frisco does some amazing dance contortions. Plot-wise, Gene helps out Dad by pretending that his ranch is a dude ranch belonging to Dad. It's all done to impress Dad's daughter and her snooty eastern fiancé. Plus, there's helium, of all things, under a weird trapdoor that bad guys are trying to steal. Worse, I think they want to sell it to Hitler.

A big highlight is when Frog Millhouse takes an unscheduled ride in a 98-cent balloon that actually looks kind of scary—I kept looking to see how they did it. Also, Frog does some neat trick riding that others are too busy to notice. Looks to me like old Smiley Burnett (Frog) was a man of many unsung talents. There're also a spectacular wagon crash, some hard riding, and a big shootout where surprise, surprise, nobody gets hurt. Anyway, Gene's got to untangle all of this and still get in a few more songs and he's only got 50-some minutes to do it. I'm just sorry they don't make 'em like this anymore.