Git Along Little Dogies

In the 1950s, the films of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were frequently trimmed to make them fit TV time slots. In some cases, this actually improved the films--making them flow better by eliminating a few slow spots or dull songs. However, sometimes an insane editor completely destroys a film--like what happened with the copy of "Git Along Little Dogies" that I saw. It was originally 67 minutes and 15 minutes (about 20%) was chopped off--and often the edits left out important parts of the plot! And, oddly, it seems like EVERY song remained!

The plot for this film is odd--even for a Gene Autry film. It begins with Autry and a spunky lady, Doris Maxwell, getting into a tiny feud--but because of bad editing, parts of it are missing! Regardless, Gene is incredibly patient with this obnoxious lady. It turns out her father is financing an oil well whose drilling has destroyed the local water table. Gene is against it. But, when Doris bats her eyes and gets into trouble, Gene agrees to help her and the oil project. However, George Wilkens (the foreman on the well) is a conniving baddie and is determined to make the well fail--so he can then buy it himself and reveal that it is a gusher! Can Gene and Frog manage to right everything by the end of the film? What do you think? As I mentioned above, this copy (from archive.org) is lousy. The songs aren't bad, the plot a bit sub-par and there is a bit they left in where the audience sings along with a bouncing ball (YICK!). The only plus is watching Gene run and jump on his horse Champion repeatedly--it was exciting but must have caused serious damage to whoever did these stunts!! My advice is try to find the full film--otherwise forget it.