Guns and Guitars
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Colima County, Texas has barred the entry of cattle from fever-ridden Sage County, where two unscrupulous schemers, Morhan and Conner, have raised thousands of head of the cattle suffering from Texas Cattle Fever. The cattle are secretly owned by leading citizen Dave Morgan (J.P. McGowan). While driving the diseased cattle to a railhead for shipping, they cross a corner of Colima Country and are spotted and fired upon by Marjorie Miller (Dorothy Dix), daughter of Sheriff Ed Miller (Jack Rockwell). The outlaws are about to kidnap the girl when Gene Autry (Gene Autry), Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), and Shorty (Frankie Marvin) arrive on the scene and rescue the girl. Gene and his sidekicks are traveling with Professor Parker's traveling medicine show.
Morgan stages a town meeting and tries to prove that the fever is not contagious with the help of quack veterinarian Dr. Schaefer (Harrison Greene). Morgan's plan is foiled by Professor Parker (Earle Hodgins), a real veterinarian who emphatically states that the disease is contagious. After the townspeople run Schaefer out of town and vote to support the quarantine, Connor orders Gene to leave town by five o'clock or face the consequences. Gene makes it clear that he is staying and Professor Parker and his troupe conduct their show. Meanwhile, Sheriff Miller and Deputy Clark are riding on the trail and discussing the case when they are ambushed by Connor and Sam who leave the lawmen for dead. Gene and Frog find the lawmen; Clark is dead, but Miller is still alive. Gene decides to keep their discovery secret until they can find Clark's killer.
Meanwhile, Morgan is determined to get his henchman, Frank Hall (Pascale Perry), elected sheriff so that he can drive his infected cattle to auction. The opposing candidate is driven away by threats from Morgan's men. The people then nominate Gene to run against Hall. Desperate to undermine Gene's cadidacy, Morgan finds Miller's handcuffs and badge in Gene's hotel room and accuses Gene of killing Miller. he tries to have him arrested, but Gene escapes. With little hope of Gene winning the election now, Marjorie organizes the town's women, and all of them convince their men to vote for Gene, who wins the election by a landslide.
Morgan and his men make one last attempt to drive their cattle across the county. Gene organizes a posse and goes after Morgan's men. Following a shootout, they chase Morgan and Connor and trick them into revealing that they know where Miller and Clark were hidden, thereby confirming their guilt. Sheriff Miller congratulates Gene and Frog as they put Morgan and Connor in jail. With peace restored in the town, Professor Parker's traveling medicine show moves on.

Review: One Of Gene Autry's Best. Although Guns and Guitars was of Gene Autry's earliest movies, it was also one of his best. This film laid the groundwork for how most of his movies were scripted. A combination of fists, gun play, and smarts were used to foil the villain. Unlike some of Autry's other movies, this one did not have any "idiot sidekick" moments. Smiley Burnette did have some humorous moments in the film, but nothing over the top. J.P. McGowan played a great villain as Morgan. Too bad, these two enormous talents, McGowan and Autry, didn't work together more often. The only negative for this movie was the bad editing in the main fight scene. Morgan amazingly goes from losing his hat to having it back on again and then surrendering to Autry with no gloves on and then having handcuffs put on him with his gloves back on again. Definitely, a must see.. Almost Top of the Class, But Not Quite!. A pleasant enough western, though there is just sufficient action footage  including some excellent stunt-work -- to get by with the fans. Oddly, there's also less music than usual. Most of the picture is taken up with the plot (a serviceable offering) and the machinations of personable villain J.P. McGowan. Even Smiley Burnette's opportunities are limited, though he does have a bill-posting run-in with Charles King (in the comparatively minor role of the villain's offsider's offsider)  a routine that was later used to greater advantage by Laurel and Hardy in "Air Raid Wardens"  and a splendid fade-out.Dorothy Dix proves an innocuous heroine, but Tom London makes his villain a fascinating figure, whilst Earle Hodgins blusters away effectively as Professor Parker (we like his amusing encounter with Harrison Greene's fake veterinarian). Good old Jack Rockwell graces his customary role as the sheriff.Kane's direction rates as efficient. Not his fault that a bit more gun-slinging and a lot more guitar-strumming was really needed to lift this western to top of the class. Photography and music scoring climb well up to standard. Production values nudge the excellent level, thanks to actual location shooting and plenty of extras milling about.. Guns and Guitars, and great Western action. This was one of Gene Autry's earliest movies, less than one year into his series that he filmed, almost without pause, between 1935 and his entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. But his riding, and his acting, already are looking more natural, and he's looking more comfortable doing them.His best acting probably comes when one of the bad guys, Tom London, emerges from the saloon through a window he and henchman Charlie King have shot out, to confront Gene over the fact that London's warned him to be "out of town by 5 o'clock," and Autry has failed to comply. Gene is presiding at that moment over the sales of Dr. Parker's (Earle Hodgins) "magic tonic" at the medicine show that Parker operates. Instead of running scared of London, or trying to "out-draw" him, Gene begins an advertising spiel for the tonic -- available for one dollar a bottle. Speaking directly to London, Autry finally tosses him a bottle of the stuff. "One dollar, please." London glares at Gene, and his hand moves slowly -- toward his gun? Gene's right hand slowly makes the same move. But finally London reaches into his pants pocket instead, pulls out a silver dollar, and tosses it to Gene, who catches it effortlessly (don't forget, Autry once got a chance to sign with a minor league baseball team, but decided to turn it down), gives London a grin and a nod, and the tense moment passes.London and King's boss is a local big shot who expects to "make $100,000" using illegal ways to move a big cattle herd. J.P. McGowan plays that "biggest bad guy," and his sons Dorrel and Stuart McGowan wrote the screenplay. The McGowan brothers wrote some of the best of Autry's early screenplays.All ends well -- as usual -- with the bad guys in jail, and Gene and the leading lady, Dorothy Dix, driving the medicine show wagon off into the sunset. And if you want to see a funny ending, watch Smiley Burnette take a big swig of Dr. Parker's Painless Panacea -- and then see what happens within seconds. All in all, an excellent Autry B-Western of the early sound era.. "Watch her wiggle, watch her shake, and don't forget to watch that snake!". The story synopsis for this film on Encore Westerns stated that after being framed for murder, Gene Autry goes on a search for the real killers. I was wondering if he'd have better luck than OJ, so I tuned in to check it out. Actually, I knew he would, since Autry always gets his man, whether in the movies or on his TV show.This was an early Autry Western for Republic Pictures, utilizing a plot element I haven't seen before. Chief villain Morgan (J.P. McGowan) and his top henchman Conners (Tom London) attempt to run an infected herd with 'Texas cattle fever' from Sage County across Colima County, where a quarantine is in effect. Autry's first brush with the bad guys occurs when he saves the sheriff's daughter (Dorothy Dix) from the gang. I got a kick out of that gun shot Autry used to knock the hat off Conners; directly behind Conners were three of his men on horseback and not one of them or their horses were hit! You know, there's a fair amount of entertainment in this picture for one that comes in just under an hour. Smiley does his usual thing with a colorful tune, and black character Eightball (Eugene Jackson) does a neat tap dance. My favorite was the way Dr. Parker (Earl Hodgins) discredited the phony vet with his quick delivery on matters of veterinary medicine.Maybe it was another rider, but I would swear that was Gene and Champion that took a tumble during the chase after the bad guys near the finale. If I'm wrong, someone give me a heads up. You know, I was just as curious as the town folk about that five o'clock deadline Connors gave Gene to get out of town. But somehow, it just didn't have the suspense of "High Noon".