This film has one of the coolest transitions in an Autry flick; it's when Old Man Roberts (Tom London) is about to die, and Gene immediately goes into the title song, actually cut short a bit from 'Ghost Riders in the Sky'. There's a lot of poetic imagery and the cinematography is quite good for the sequence. It almost raises the level of the film above it's B Western origins. Almost, but not quite. When you stop to consider what just happened, you realize that star Autry is singing a song while the old guy is dying, it's very incongruous.
There's something else that's kind of unusual. During the scene when Gene chases the runaway stagecoach driven by Old Man Roberts, a long shot of the driver from a distance shows clearly that it's not Tom London in the driver's seat. He's only there for the close-ups. And once again, if you're a B Western fan like myself, how many times have you seen the stage driver go for his shoulder after getting shot from behind?
Pat Buttram is Gene's sidekick in the story going by Chuckwalla Jones. I thought it a bit unusual that Champ bucked Chuckwalla off his back after being invited to ride double by Gene. It looked cool as a comedy gimmick, but why wouldn't Champ adhere to his master's request? It just came across as a little odd, but maybe it's just me.
I must have missed something in the translation of the film, because the main villain Rock McCleary (Robert Livingston) is done in by the fact that the water rights to the land he's selling go along with the land. That revelation was made out to sound like a big deal, but I could only go 'Huh'? It seemed only natural to me. But McCleary was having the water piped in, so at that point I couldn't make any sense of it at all. I'm going to have to see this again for whatever it is I missed, just not right away.
There's something else that's kind of unusual. During the scene when Gene chases the runaway stagecoach driven by Old Man Roberts, a long shot of the driver from a distance shows clearly that it's not Tom London in the driver's seat. He's only there for the close-ups. And once again, if you're a B Western fan like myself, how many times have you seen the stage driver go for his shoulder after getting shot from behind?
Pat Buttram is Gene's sidekick in the story going by Chuckwalla Jones. I thought it a bit unusual that Champ bucked Chuckwalla off his back after being invited to ride double by Gene. It looked cool as a comedy gimmick, but why wouldn't Champ adhere to his master's request? It just came across as a little odd, but maybe it's just me.
I must have missed something in the translation of the film, because the main villain Rock McCleary (Robert Livingston) is done in by the fact that the water rights to the land he's selling go along with the land. That revelation was made out to sound like a big deal, but I could only go 'Huh'? It seemed only natural to me. But McCleary was having the water piped in, so at that point I couldn't make any sense of it at all. I'm going to have to see this again for whatever it is I missed, just not right away.