FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Zandra
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
bkoganbing
In Old Santa Fe has come down to us as the debut film for both Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette both off the Old Barn Dance radio show. But aside from Gene's singing and Ken Maynard's dubbed singing it's not a bad modern day western with a bit of comedy and mystery thrown into the film as a bargain.A pair of villains Kenneth Thomson and Wheeler Oakman arrive at H.B. Warner's dude ranch. Years ago Warner was a crook, but he left the big city and lives quiet and rich due to his dude ranch's popularity and the fact he's got a goldmine on the premises.Which attract Thomson and Oakman. Thomson also has a Snidely Whiplash like interest in Warner's daughter Evelyn Knapp. But of course she can only see cowboy hero Ken Maynard.Big mistake Thomson and Oakman make was setting up a race horse where they trick Maynard's sidekick Gabby Hayes into putting up Maynard's horse Tarzan to cover a bet. You just don't do that to a cowboy hero especially since the race is rigged for them to win.Maynard nails these two with some modern type forensic investigation and all's well that ends well as the Bard put it. This was the kind of plot that you would see a lot of in the Forties in Roy Rogers' westerns.Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette make their debuts in a country dance at the dude ranch. Autry was grateful to Maynard for his big break and helped him out a lot when he was old, broke, and alcoholic. Maynard became his personal charity.In Old Santa Fe holds up quite well for today's viewers.
arfdawg-1
Gangster Chandler and his accomplice Tracy arrive at a dude ranch. Cowboy Kentucky arrives at the same time. When Tracy double-crosses his boss and has the stage robbed, Kentucky finds the outlaws and brings them in. Tracy frames him for the murder of the driver but his pal Cactus gets him out of jail. He returns just as Chandler shoots Tracy and Kentucky finds himself arrested for another murder.I suppose if you are a fan of this genre you will like the movie.I'm not such a fan.It's OK.
classicsoncall
And that's just for starters! There's no doubting only Gabby Hayes could deliver a line like that and he was doing it here when he was still being billed as George Hayes. Still the same old Gabby though, looking like an old codger even though he was still far from his prime as the ultimate Western sidekick.What threw me for a loop was an opening screen intro that stated 'Nat Levine Presents Gene Autry' for this picture when it actually starred Ken Maynard. Gene does make an appearance past the midway point, and I can now say I saw him in his very first picture. Not only that, but he brought Smiley Burnette along for HIS very first picture too, so this film merits entry in the Western movie trivia Hall of Fame.I can't say I've seen Ken Maynard sing in one of his films before, but that's the way the picture starts out with him crooning something along the lines of 'As Long As I Got My Dog'. As far as the story goes, it's a pretty standard one in which the hero outwits the bad guys and wins the pretty female lead (Evalyn Knapp as Lila Miller) by the time the sun goes down. Kentucky Ken and partner Cactus (Hayes) uncover a scheme in which villain Chandler/Korber (Kenneth Thompson) attempts to blackmail pretty Lila's father (H.B. Warner) over his own criminal past.With all that's going on here, I can't help thinking that Maynard, the nominal star wound up playing second fiddle to the characters around him. Autry only appears on screen for a few brief moments, and his voice sounds a little twangy singing 'In Old Wyoming', while Smiley is a hoot introducing his froggy voice with 'My Momma Don't Allow'. You also have to credit Maynard's palomino Tarzan for a major role in the story, what with all the tricky maneuvering around obstacles, over jumps and rugged terrain in that horse race through the canyon. If the story had anything to do with Old Santa Fe you could have fooled me, but then again, it WAS one of the songs done by Gene Autry.
dbborroughs
The reissue print I saw lists Gene Autry as the star, but the truth is he's only in one scene singing a song at a party. The real star of the film is Ken Maynard, one of the first singing cowboys in one of his last appearances in "musical" western. The Plot has to do with Ken helping out the owner of a dude ranch that is wanted by a gangster. First the gangster fixes a horse race and then he resorts to murder and robbery, framing Maynard in the hope of getting him out of the way. Good action packed film is slowed down by too many songs. The songs aren't bad but it takes up too much room with the result being that the first 40 minutes is rather leisurely while the final 15 or 20 minutes is a race to the wire. I wish things had been more spread out, especially since the film kind of slows to a crawl after the horse race. Still its worth a look, preferably as part of a double feature evening.
