a5c7b9f00b Gene goes after the badguys after they kidnap the baby he should have been babysitting. After Gene has his watch stolen by the Gypsy he takes a job on the Thomas ranch. Thomas&#39; dog has brought home the cradle with the Gypsy&#39;s baby and when the Gypsy retrieves his baby, Gene thinks he is a kidnaper. Buthe chases after him he now sees that Thomas&#39; cattle are being rustled. Real early in Gene Autry&#39;s film career and a very busy western movie. Autry, the popular radio singer wins $1,000 at a rodeo and in the night his money is stolen by a gypsy, Black Frantz(Willy Castello). Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse(Smiley Burnette)take jobs at a ranch that is plagued by cattle thieves. Autry becomes attracted to the owner&#39;s daughter Millicent(Ann Rutherford)and helps her and her cowgirls round up the rustlers. Instead of Gene riding his famed horse Champion…he catches the bad guys by automobile. The cowboys are given their jobs back on the condition they marry the cowgirls that took their place on the ranch.<br/><br/>There is a handful of songs in this mid 30&#39;s Republic Picture and Gene sings &quot;A Lonesome Cowboy on the Lone Prairie&quot; and &quot;On the Melody Trail&quot;. Also starring are: Timothy Thomas, Al Bridge, Gertrude Messinger and Marie Quillen. Not to be confused with Gene Autry&#39;s 1940 picture &quot;Melody Ranch&quot;, this one came at the very start of his career just a couple of pictures after &quot;The Phantom Empire&quot; serial. Much of the opening sequence appears to be utilizing stock footage of rodeo events complete with an announcer&#39;s corny attempts at cowboy humor. As in why the bucking bulls have bells on their horns - to keep the riders from falling asleep.<br/><br/>After Gene&#39;s contest money of a thousand dollars is stolen by a member of a gypsy band, he and Frog (Smilley Burnette) seek work on a local cattle ranch where cowgirls have replaced the regular ranch hands. This might have given rise to all sorts of romantic entanglements, but the story didn&#39;t go very far in that direction, until the final scene (you&#39;ll just have to see it). The boys get to investigate a spate of cattle rustling along with a baby kidnapping, while hosting a handful of musical numbers including the title song.<br/><br/>I always love watching these early films for their take on life in simpler times. Back then, eggs were priced at twenty eight cents a dozen, and can you believe it - they were offered for sale on the sidewalk outside the store - without refrigeration!<br/><br/>Gene&#39;s horse Champion has a canine rival for your attention in this one,a Saint Bernard by the name of Souvenir gets a lot of screen time with his mischief. He snatched the baby basket in the first place early on, and I kept wondering when the gypsy camp would go manic over the loss of the little guy, but that never happened. Instead, the father Frantz simply showed up at the Thomas Ranch because he heard the baby might have been there. That just left me completely puzzled. By the way, the role of Souvenir was played by Buck and he got his own credit at the start of the picture - go figure.<br/><br/>It&#39;s not unusual to pick up on continuity goofs in these early pictures, and if you stay attentive you&#39;ll catch one here. In the scene when Frantz the Gypsy comes to claim the baby from the Thomases, Mr. Thomas (Wade Boteler) calls his daughter Nancy. Her name was Millicent.
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