Gene Autry sells his guitar for gas money. Happily, he runs into Vera Marshe, who he knows from wild west shows as a sharpshooter. Now she's making a living as duenna to Elena Verdugo, and suggests he get the job running Miss Verdugo's ranch in Mexico, since her business manager (and frequent marriage-proposer) is Stephen Dunne, also formerly of wild west shows. Dunne hires Autry with a six-month contract, but there's something oily about him. He's ordering families off the ranch for non-payment of rent, despite the fact that they haven't been able to sell their cattle into the US for some time; now that the market is open again, they can pay off. But Dunne wants them gone, so he can engineer the sale of the ranch to Gene Roth and pick up a nice commission. Gene sizes up the situation quickly and settles on the tenants' side.
It's one of two Autry movies in color, but the print I looked at had something horrid happen to the Cinecolor process, so all the blues turned the color of milk. The story, while pretty good, and with some nice humor in the relationship of Miss Verdugo and her godfather, seems to wander, going nowhere until the time comes for the plot threads to be tied up. The songs are okay, but not especially memorable. While color was a definite bonus here -- assuming the theatrical prints were better -- the writing would have to be better to make the investment pay. Gene would go back to black and white, and stay there.
It's one of two Autry movies in color, but the print I looked at had something horrid happen to the Cinecolor process, so all the blues turned the color of milk. The story, while pretty good, and with some nice humor in the relationship of Miss Verdugo and her godfather, seems to wander, going nowhere until the time comes for the plot threads to be tied up. The songs are okay, but not especially memorable. While color was a definite bonus here -- assuming the theatrical prints were better -- the writing would have to be better to make the investment pay. Gene would go back to black and white, and stay there.