The Cowboy and the Indians

Gene Autry is upset with the Indians leaving their reservation and helping themselves to his grazing land, and sometimes his stock. But when an old Indian woman collapses, he helps take her to where she can be tended by the local doctor, Sheila Ryan, and discovers she is suffering form malnutrition. He discovers that the local agent, Frank Richards, is not only cheating the Indians out of their money, but has a sideline in buying their precious goods cheap and selling them to a collector for big dollars. Gene prepares a report for Washington, but Richards is keeping busy. He almost kills Chief Yowlatchie, takes his necklace which is the sign of his rulership, and tries to pin the crime on Yowlatchie's successor, Jay Silverheels.

It's nice to see an Autry vehicle which is about something real, and with several members of the cast actual Indians. Silverheels has a particularly good role. He would not appear in many more B westerns for a while; the same day this movie was released, the first episode of TV's THE LONE RANGER premiered, starring him as Tonto, and fellow cast Clayton Moore -- here 'Henchman Luke' -- as the Ranger.

There isn't much singing here, but Gene does sing "Here Comes Santa Claus."

Although The Cowboy And The Indians is not the usual run of Gene Autry B western, it's still a good film. And if the Autry name bought in the kiddie trade, good because showed a film that has a fine and sensitive portrayal of the American Indian in modern times.

The film has Gene buying a ranch, but having a lot of problems because the neighboring Indians from a reservation are grazing their own herds their and occasionally stealing some of his. But there's a real good reason for that. They're kept in near starvation because of a real sleazeball running the reservation trading post. Frank Richards is one of the scurviest villains that Gene ever had in one of his westerns. When Dr. Sheila Ryan diagnoses a case of malnutrition for an old Indian woman that Gene brings in, Gene has a bad attack of social conscience.

The Cowboy and The Indians also features both Jay Silverheels and Clayton Moore, the future Tonto and The Lone Ranger, on opposite sides, Silverheels as Crown Prince of his tribe for want of a better term and Moore as one of Richards's henchmen. They'd be teaming on The Lone Ranger Show on TV for the first time in 1949 the same year this film came out.

The film ends slightly early so that an appendage of sorts is attached with Gene singing his hit Here Comes Santa Claus and the choir of Indian children from the reservation doing Silent Night. It must have been an after thought at Columbia Pictures in the way it's tacked on to the film, but still nice.

Definitely one of the best of Gene Autry's post World War II films.

It passed one hour and it 8 minutes. To be honest though, Gene Autry should have just stuck to singing.

Superior Autry, with lots of hard-riding, fast-shooting, and flying-fists, along with a good storyline not often seen in those days. The voice-over prologue actually explains why Indians were often hostile to the white settlers, something not often done, since their exotic looks served as useful movie canon fodder. Anyhow, the Indians are portrayed here as ordinary human beings, with a different culture but with the same needs. Then too, except for Lucy Broken Arm (Drake), real Indians are cast in leading parts, something else Hollywood did not often do.

Trouble is a slippery white merchant is cheating his red man customers, such that they're having to steal food, which brings rancher Gene into the picture. Catch the great staging around the rock spires and boulders. They make a great backdrop for shootouts, and I don't think that setting was the picturesque Alabama Hills so familiar from many Hollywood oaters. Anyway, the emphasis here is on action, a humane message, and a dollop of charm (the kids) making this an unusually well-rounded Autry entry.

I've seen a number of Gene Autry movies and, in my opinion, this is NOT one of the better. Maybe I'm just becoming too negative. Aha!!! I know what's missing: the sidekick. Minimal comic relief. Then there're those stereotypically-wrong characteristics of the Indians. (I know...portrayals were very different in 1949.) At least they're not the villains here. Quite the contrary: this shows how they were victimized in yet another way. At first, Gene is upset by their raids, but he later learns why, which is then still unbeknownst to the local constabulary. So, for awhile there, Gene's on the outs with the law. Interestingly, this flick contains BOTH Clayton Moore (as a bad guy) AND Jay Silverheels (as a college-educated Indian) BEFORE they were The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Also, this film must have been released near Christmas 'cause - get ready for a couple of song-standards of that season toward it's end. Some other tunes were a little TOO hokey and juvenile for my tastes, even taking into account the behavior of the era.