The Singing Vagabond

Plot synopsis:
At a St. Louis opera house in 1860, a singer in blackface named Jerry Barton, known as "King of the Minstrels", comes backstage and asks his sweetheart, Lettie Morgan (Ann Rutherford), to elope. Lettie's Aunt Hortense, fearing that Barton is a fortune hunter, tells Lettie she is not the heiress she thought she was and that she has been living off her aunt's charity. With no fortune to hunt, Barton informs Lettie that an artist cannot be burdened with the responsibility of a wife.
Outside the opera house, Lettie meets a chorus girl named Honey (Barbara Pepper), who is preparing to leave with her theatrical troupe in a caravan heading West. When the troupe's producer mistakes Lettie for the star, she joins the group as "Mary Varden". The troupe's wagon train is escorted by Captain Tex Autry (Gene Autry) of the U.S. Cavalry and his singing plainsmen. The troupe misses the wagon train, however, and must travel alone.
On their way to San Francisco, the caravan is ambushed by a gang of thieves. Tex and his men arrive on the scene and following a gunfight, the gang is chased off. After Tex saves Lettie from a runaway wagon, he comments on the foolishness of risking his men's lives for a bunch of "crazy showgirls". Angered by his insolence, Lettie decides to walk rather than ride with Tex. Eventually she gets tired and asks Tex if she can ride with him. The troupe arrives safely at Fort Henry, which is run by Colonel Seward (Frank LaRue).
An Indian named Young Deer warns Tex that Chief White Eagle is preparing to attack the army. When horses are stolen from the fort by a renegade named Buck LaCrosse (Warner Richmond), Tex saves the horses. Utah Joe (Allan Sears), who is in league with Chief White Eagle, falsely accuses Tex of complicity with the Indians, and Tex is soon arrested for treason. Aunt Hortense arrives with Judge Forsythe Lane (Niles Welch), who hopes to marry Lettie and use her money to run for president. Aunt Hortense encourages her to marry Lane. Lettie appeals to Lane on Tex's behalf, hinting that she will marry him if he will save Tex. As the wagon train prepares to leave, Lettie sadly says goodbye to Tex, and Lane promises to join Lettie after the trial. However, Lane double-crosses Lettie and helps to secure Tex's conviction.
Following his conviction and death sentence, Tex escapes with the help of his friends. Suspicious that Utah Joe has promised to supply Chief White Eagle with ammunition, Tex orders his friend Frog (Smiley Burnette) to join the wagon train to spy on Utah Joe. While the caravan camps, Frog tells Lettie that Lane encouraged Tex's conviction. Honey, who has fallen in love with Frog, tells Lettie that Lane was probably jealous of Lettie's feelings for Tex, but Lettie denies loving the soldier. When Utah Joe announces plans to take a new route through Kern Valley, Frog warns that the valley is filled with renegades and unfriendly Indians.
Later that night Tex arrives and overhears Utah Joe direct Chief White Eagle to the wagons stocked with gunpowder. Tex pulls his gun on them, and a fight ensues, during which LaCrosse arrives on the scene. As Frog and Tex try to fight off the renegades, the soldiers ride up. Chief White Eagle is shot during the scuffle, but Utah Joe escapes. LaCrosse is arrested and, under the threat of a firing squad, confesses that Utah Joe instigated the horse stealing at the fort, while he let loose the clever black stallion who opened the corral gate. LaCrosse also warns the caravan that Utah Joe is leading them into an ambush.
As the caravan prepares to leave, Utah Joe, now dressed as an Indian, sends a smoke signal, and the Indians approach. Frog is grazed by a bullet and inadvertently becomes attached to the underside of the runaway powder wagon. Tex manages to save him, and igniting the wagon, sends it into a throng of Indians. The Indians retreat once the plainsmen arrive, and as the wagon train departs, Tex and Lettie kiss, with Honey nursing Frog behind the embracing couple.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Action Packed Oater That Should Please Gene Autry Fans. The opening musical/comedy skit may be a bit much and even downright offense to the modern viewer, but it does provide a historical glimpse of a dead art form, the minstrel show, which evolved into vaudeville and thus found a place in early Hollywood movies. Since the story takes place in 1860, the skit is apropos for the plot of the film. The producer takes the show westward via wagon train and with it many-a showgirl, including a runaway, Lettie Morgan (played with aplomb by beautiful Ann Rutherford, aka Polly Benedict of the Andy Hardy series), whose aunt has just told her that she is not as rich as she thought she was, to ward off an undesirable suitor. The wagon train runs smack into trouble and to the rescue ride Captain Tex Autry, aka Gene Autry, and his band of cavalry buddies, including, of course, the redoubtable Smiley "Frog" Burnette. As Rosanne Rosannadanna would say, from there if it's not one thing, it's another. Tex (Gene) is framed by the bad guy, Utah Joe, played with standout surliness by Allan Sears. And the rest of the movie involves Tex (Gene) and his buddies trying to prove his innocence and Utah Joe's guilt. This includes a rousing shootout between the cavalry and renegade Indians who have been stirred up by Utah Joe. The wagon filled with explosives provides a fitting closing for this action-packed, early Gene Autry entry that most should enjoy. Unfortunately, the songs are not up to Gene Autry standards, even though he and Frog, both talented songwriters, helped pen most of them.. Pretty good Autry -- as "Tex". This is, I think, the only Gene Autry movie where he didn't use his real first name. He is "Tex Autry" in this one. Don't know whose idea that was, but it was never done again.
The Singing Cowboy and his group spend a good part of the film fighting a fierce Indian tribe near a U.S. Cavalry fort, singing, and, for Tex, romancing a lovely leading lady, Ann Rutherford. She has come from back east, where the movie begins at a New York theater where we see part of a minstrel show. Some may find this distasteful in this politically correct age, but it didn't bother me a bit, as at the age of 9 I was privileged to see the last live minstrel show ever put on in my hometown.
Anyway, there's a lot of good action in the film, and Gene Autry is starting to show acting talent that his critics always claimed he never had. Worth a view!. "You have anything to say, you better say it quick.". Well I learned something today after watching the opening scenes of this film. Both horse drawn streetcars and black-face minstrel shows date back to the 1830's, so they were not out of place in this story that takes place in 1860. I would have sworn both references to be anachronistic, so on that score I have been educated. Even so, the black-face presentation seems a little jarring outside of an Al Jolson type movie, but seeing it in these early pictures helps one understand how far we've come as a country.This is one of Gene's earliest movies, and as such he looks astonishingly young. Along with that, the story seems a bit disjointed and the characters seem to lack continuity from one scene to the next. For example, Gene (as Tex Autry) seems genuinely annoyed that he had to save Lettie Morgan (Ann Rutherford) from a runaway wagon in an early scene, but soon after is singing 'Honeymoon Trail' with her to entertain the cavalry troops. Similarly, Gene's reputation as a cavalry scout and guide is sterling, but he's summarily courtmartialed on the say so of renegade Utah Joe (Allan Sears) after trying to stop a fleeing herd of cavalry horses. With a little more exposition, these events could have been developed a bit more believably, but I guess the film makers figured that young audiences of the time could fill in the blanks themselves.Because it's one of Smiley Burnette's early team ups with Gene, he doesn't seem to have a lot to do here. He only slips into 'Frog' mode a couple of times or three, and with no context to explain why his voice goes low key. Nor does he get to sing solo or play one of those unusual instruments he came up with from time to time in pictures with Gene or Charles Starrett. In fact, Gene actually belts Smiley a good one near the end of the picture during another runaway wagon scene; it seems that Smiley/Frog was going to off himself by blowing up a band of Indians while aboard the wagon loaded with dynamite! Makes you wonder what the writers were thinking about.So with all that as background, I don't think you'll find this to be one of Gene's better films, but again, it was an early picture and starring role for him. The one hour run time goes by pretty quickly, and it's neatly partitioned for a handful of tunes with Gene leading the way with his Singing Plainsmen.