Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

dougdoepke Superior Autry, with lots of hard-riding, fast-shooting, and flying-fists, along with a good storyline not often seen in those days. The voice-over prologue actually explains why Indians were often hostile to the white settlers, something not often done, since their exotic looks served as useful movie canon fodder. Anyhow, the Indians are portrayed here as ordinary human beings, with a different culture but with the same needs. Then too, except for Lucy Broken Arm (Drake), real Indians are cast in leading parts, something else Hollywood did not often do.Trouble is a slippery white merchant is cheating his red man customers, such that they're having to steal food, which brings rancher Gene into the picture. Catch the great staging around the rock spires and boulders. They make a great backdrop for shootouts, and I don't think that setting was the picturesque Alabama Hills so familiar from many Hollywood oaters. Anyway, the emphasis here is on action, a humane message, and a dollop of charm (the kids) making this an unusually well-rounded Autry entry.

classicsoncall I have to admit, I was a bit shocked to hear Gene utter the line in my summary above, but that was before he learned why the local Indian tribe was using his property for grazing land and occasionally taking some of his stock. Apparently they were malnourished and starving, victims of a thieving trading post owner and his band of henchmen. Gene has a quick change of heart and teams up with Jay Silverheels to take down Smiley Martin (Frank Richards) and the rest of his bunch by the time the story's over.For TV and movie Western fans there's a gold nugget of trivia offered here by the casting for the picture. Not only do Silverheels and Clayton Moore both appear in the story, but their own long running series 'The Lone Ranger' debuted on the very same day as this picture's release - September 15th, 1949. For Silverheels, this is not a Tonto style characterization; he portrays a college educated Indian who's also performed military service for his country. Fair to say that Gene was making his own small contribution to Western movie revisionism with this picture in which the villains were white and the Indians actually come riding to the rescue at the end of the picture.After a couple of early songs, one by Gene and another by the Indian school children, I was momentarily perplexed when all of a sudden Gene's on horseback singing 'Here Comes Santa Claus' with Hank Patterson riding alongside in a Santa outfit. That's followed up by the school choir offering a respectful version of 'Silent Night'. I have to say, those kids sounded awful darn good and quite honestly I was looking for a professional choir to be listed in the credits. The picture's worth a look just to hear those youngsters sing.

bkoganbing Although The Cowboy And The Indians is not the usual run of Gene Autry B western, it's still a good film. And if the Autry name bought in the kiddie trade, good because showed a film that has a fine and sensitive portrayal of the American Indian in modern times.The film has Gene buying a ranch, but having a lot of problems because the neighboring Indians from a reservation are grazing their own herds their and occasionally stealing some of his. But there's a real good reason for that. They're kept in near starvation because of a real sleazeball running the reservation trading post. Frank Richards is one of the scurviest villains that Gene ever had in one of his westerns. When Dr. Sheila Ryan diagnoses a case of malnutrition for an old Indian woman that Gene brings in, Gene has a bad attack of social conscience.The Cowboy and The Indians also features both Jay Silverheels and Clayton Moore, the future Tonto and The Lone Ranger, on opposite sides, Silverheels as Crown Prince of his tribe for want of a better term and Moore as one of Richards's henchmen. They'd be teaming on The Lone Ranger Show on TV for the first time in 1949 the same year this film came out.The film ends slightly early so that an appendage of sorts is attached with Gene singing his hit Here Comes Santa Claus and the choir of Indian children from the reservation doing Silent Night. It must have been an after thought at Columbia Pictures in the way it's tacked on to the film, but still nice.Definitely one of the best of Gene Autry's post World War II films.

bozey45 A couple of comments about this film and the lack of a sidekick. Smiley Burnette, although with Columbia at this time could not be used because of still being under contract for the Charles Starrett Durango Kid series as HIS sidekick. Pat Buttram had done an introductory appearance in the Autry film "The Strawberry Roan." He did not start as Autry's sidekick until the film "Riders in the Sky" in 1950. There were several films between Roan and Riders where Autry had no sidekick. Of course, WWII was the reason Burnette signed a long contract for the Durango Kid films with Starrett, Autry having reported for duty in the war. Buttram started on Aurtry's radio show "Melody Ranch" right after the war but apparently was reluctant about appearing in films right away. I think we're all glad he did decide to do so finally and happy that Autry's last 6 films were with original sidekick Smiley Burnette in 1953.