This is a decent Gene Autry western musical with stereotypical western story (our hero helps young heiress of ranch keep it from falling into the hands of claims against the estate that results in violence), saved by the three color process that added a boost to many the pictures in the 1940's, looking much like a process utilized in historical or musical shorts in the 1930's. Elena Verdugo is the feisty young heroine whose uncle wants to send her away to keep her out of harm, refusing to go and basically causing lots of mischief along the way. She's beautiful but often over plays the feisty scenes, giving a bit of stereotypical spitfire to a character that should have been a bit softer. Fortunately, as the film goes on, she begins to tone it down, but for a while, I was rather annoyed by her constant screeching. Other actors playing Hispanic characters tend to overdo the thick accents, not really sounding completely realistic. It's still an attractive movie, one of Autry's longest as far as length is concerned, and obviously one of the higher budgeted, pretty much an A, at least for effort, if not for consistent quality.
Review of The Big Sombrero
