Rim of the Canyon

Gene Autry gets busted out of a stagecoach race with a sprained ankle when another driver steals a lug nut and drives Champion off. He walks to a nearby ghost town, where he finds Nan Leslie waiting for her weekly meeting with the ghost of Thurston Hall. Meanwhile, three prisoners have busted out of prison to look for $30,000 one stole from Hall twenty years ago, and to seek revenge on the son of the man who put him in prison. That's Autry.

This western is pretty much broken into three interweaved parts, with Gene and Miss Leslie, Champion trying to escape from the bad guys, and Autry playing his father twenty years earlier. It's an interestingly told story, with hints of the supernatural, and Miss Leslie sounding cracked in an ethereal way.... until it turns out the ghost has set a table for a romantic dinner for two.

Although it's a little short of songs for an Autry oater, the unusual plot certainly makes it among Autry's best in story terms. With Alan Hale Jr., Clem Bevans, and Jock Mahoney.

Shortly after Gene Autry returned to the world of Western film-making following his wartime service, he left Republic Pictures, moving with his production company to Columbia where he enjoyed the greater fiscal capabilities of the larger studio, as can plainly be observed in this well-made melodrama that is marked by strong contributions from all involved, and that offers a storyline having precedence over Autry's former bedrock singing scenes, of which there are but two examples in this piece. Gene plays a double role, incorporating flashbacks as his sheriff father Steve who, 20 years prior, had arrested a trio of stagecoach bandits that are now prison escapees and have returned to their former hunting grounds, in the area where Gene owns a spread, to regain their secreted loot, and before this briskly-paced film has come to its closing, we may enjoy a scenario featuring an exciting stage coach race, a ghost ( naturally residing in a ghost town), a rampaging herd of wild horses, excellent stunt work, a romance (for which a homely schoolteacher abruptly blossoms), along with gunplay and superb horsemanship. The original story penned by Joseph Chadwick and published in the long-running pulp magazine "Western Aces" is adapted to a script by John K. Butler that improves upon it, adding elements that match the skills of those involved, including director John English who further tightens the work, cinematographer William Bradford, notable cameraman of equine fare, editor Aaron Stell (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) who works closely with English, George Montgomery, whose designs are moodily effective for the ghost town interiors, Russell Malmgren with noteworthy sound mixing, in addition to the duo of Paul Malcolm (makeup) and Beth Langston (coiffeurs) who successfully bring about a metamorphosis of Ruth (Nan Leslie) from a plain, lovelorn spinster into an actual beauty; Leslie is impressive, as are future cinema Tarzan Jock Mahoney and rugged Walter Sande as hold-up men, and there are fine turns from old hands Thurston Hall, Alan Hale Jr., Clem Bevans, John McKee, Francis McDonald and Denver Pyle, while Champion Jr. must not be ignored, the Tennessee Walker's actions being fundamental to plot development.

Rim Of The Canyon finds Gene Autry without a sidekick, usually a necessary character in the B western. But the film does make up for the lack of a Smiley Burnette or a Pat Buttram in it with a somewhat unusual story about a ghost town and a ghost.

Gene Autry comes to town to drive in a stagecoach race and learns of the escape of three convicts from prison, Walter Sande, Jock Mahoney, and Francis McDonald. Sande is someone that Gene's father, Marshal Steve Autry sent to prison for a $30,000.00 robbery from which the loot was never recovered. In a flashback sequence where Gene plays his father we see how the capture was made.

Getting thrown from the stagecoach and seeking shelter and help, Gene arrives in a ghost town where the local school marm has taken to spending some time. Nan Leslie is there fascinated by the ghost of a mining tycoon who haunts the place. She and Gene will need all the help they can get from this world and the next when the three escaped convicts arrive looking for the loot which by coincidence Sande stashed there.

With this glimpse into the supernatural, Rim Of The Canyon is a cut or two above the average B western. Gene was making them at this point for Columbia having left the cowboy stable of Republic and Herbert J. Yates. The stories and the treatment reflect that, there are some brutal scenes in Rim Of The Canyon that Yates would never have allowed his cowboy heroes to participate in.

Rounding out the cast in Rim Of The Canyon are Alan Hale, Jr. as Gene's rival in the stagecoach race, Thurston Hall as a very avuncular ghost who hosts Gene and Nan, and Clem Bevans playing his usual old codger prospector.

Gene wrote and sang the two songs from this film, the title song and one of his most enduring hits, You're The Only Star In My Blue Heaven.

A good western for Mr. Autry even if he didn't have a sidekick.

Oddball Autry entry, from his limping into a ghost town, to a woman possessed by a ghost, to horse Champion doing everything but talking. Looks like Gene and Columbia were reaching for something different from the matinée formula.

What they come up with is an uneven but interesting storyline that jumps around quite a bit. Nonetheless, prolific director English sneaks in some unusual camera shots adding to the movie's generally exotic flavor. And catch leading lady Leslie riding around in what looks like an overflowing prom gown, along with a wild horse herd numbering in the thousands. And note the general absence of the usual comedy relief.

As a result, you can't be sure what will pop up next since Gene (the actor) also gets to play Gene's (the character) dad, Steve, and with a mustache, no less. Minimize a convoluted plot that plays around with three outlaws and a ghost trying to find a hidden thirty-thousand in gold. Nope, the real draw here is an exotically flavored programmer much less predictable than the usual matinée fare.

Convicts Jake Fargo (Walter Sande), Pete Reagon (Jack O'Mahoney) and Charlie Lewis (Francis McDonald) escape from jail and stumble across a horse race. There, they steal Champion, the faithful horse belonging to Gene Autry (Gene Autry). Making this even more personal for Gene is the fact that his father was the man who put these bandits in jail. Fargon, Reagon and Lewis go hunting for hidden loot, but Gene intends to stop them and get his friend Champion back.

Unusual Gene Autry that is atmospheric, dreamy yet still retaining some thrills in the form of gunplay, quite tough fistfights, stagecoach chase and a vengeful Champion meting out his justice at the end. The ghost town set design is well spooky, evoking enough atmosphere. It's an imaginative and well made western melodrama.