Howard Keel is Smoky Callaway, who made a lot of B Westerns some years ago. Now his movies are being shown on television and Smoky Callaway is everyone's hero, especially the kids who adore his wholesome character. The problem faced by two advertising people -- Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire -- is that although there is a strong market demand for Smoky in the way of personal appearances and commercial endorsements, Good Ol' Smoky Callaway has disappeared into the woodwork whence he came. What can MacMurray and McGuire do? Well, what they can do is stumble upon an exact look-alike, a good-natured, cowboy in Duck Falls, Colorado, who's Zen character is interested only in the beauty of the sky and hills. He's making only $140 a month as a ranch hand and saves $130 of it. The other ten dollars "seems to slip right through muh fingers." But he can't resist two large a week for impersonating the elusive Mister Callaway so before anyone (outside the immediate circle of conspirators) know it, Stretch Barnes is in La La Land endorsing cereals and male extension products and exercisers designed to develop rock hard abs.Stretch is a little guilty about all that money though. He doesn't deserve it for impersonating someone else. So he sees a lawyer and sets up a non-breakable trust into which all his money will go except for a few grand for his ranch and, some day, his wife and lovely kiddies.Trouble is always around the corner in this sort of fairy tale. An unscrupulous rival advertising agent (Jesse White) locates Smoky Callaway in a louche dive somewhere in Latin America where he plays the guitar nightly and gets drunk daily at the El Chicolo.Smoky wastes no time getting back to where the money is. MacMurray and McGuire are frantic. They've lied to good old Stretch and told him that the real Callaway was dead -- which, for all they knew, might be the case. Now they must keep Callaway and Barnes separated while they hire a training team to get the truculent Smoky into shape, "physically, mentally, and morally." When he becomes human again, Stretch will be told the truth, replaced by Smoky, and sent back to the mountains he loves. It's a tough job. Smoky doesn't take his training regimen seriously, partly because he's got liquor stashed in the well, in hidden tree trunks, and liniment bottles -- and he's got martinis in the ink well.The team finally succeeds in drying him out but not improving his mentality. Smoky and Stretch finally meet and there is a fist fight, which Smoky loses. In a fit of pique he leaves for Latin America, and Stretch takes over the rest of the tour, making money that will mostly go to help kids who are poor and sick.A disclaimer at the end tells us that the movie was in no way meant to detract from the charitable civic efforts of real cowboy stars, whose movies were now beginning to show up and win audiences on TV. That must be a reference to guys like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and Buster Crabbe, some of whom were much like Stretch Barnes, unpretentious and generous.It's funny, but not as funny as it might be, considering it was written, produced, and directed by Norman Frank and Melvin Panama and starred the first-rate light comedian Fred MacMurray. The situation itself was in no way original but the jokes aren't as funny as they might have been. Some ARE pretty amusing. As Smoky Callaway, Keel is drunkenly romancing a gal at the bar and mumbles to her, "You know, you remind me of a girl I knew in South America. Her name was Si, Senor." But it's all pretty light-hearted and enjoyable and is an innocent way to spend an hour and a half.

While CALLAWAY WENT THATAWAY isn't the deepest film I've seen, it sure was very perceptive and fun to watch. I also wonder if maybe although the film has a disclaimer saying it ISN'T based on any celebrity they REALLY were lampooning several of the big-name cowboy stars (such as Gene Autry who was a lot like the original Callaway)--a lot like how A FACE IN THE CROWD was based on Arthur Godfrey, though the studio strongly denied this.The film is about a cowboy movie star from a decade ago who has suddenly gained a new following with kids thanks to television--just like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were re-discovered thanks to TV. As a result of his fame, the advertisers are anxious to find the actor who played Smokey Callaway so they can make more films as well as public appearances. The problem is that the actor was a big-time drinker and he just seemed to vanish after going on an extended bender in South America. Even a private eye (Jesse White) can't find the guy, so Dorothy McGuire and Fred MacMurray (who own the advertising agency) go in search of a double to pretend to be Callaway. In the process, they find a dead ringer--played by Howard Keel. The only problem is, eventually the drunk and nasty Callaway DOES resurface and they are in quite a quandary! The film has some nice comedic moments but late in the film it also becomes rather serious and romantic. Leonard Maltin's guide indicated the film was excellent until this change, but I actually liked the finished product. While not a great film, it was well worth seeing and quite perceptive about the private lives of some celebrities. Also, it's worth a look for some cameos of other stars playing themselves, such as Clark Gable and Dick Powell (among others).

"Callaway Went Thataway" is a slight comedy enlivened by some fine performances by Dorothy McGuire, Fred MacMurray, Howard Keel and Jesse White. As television was threatening to take over the film industry, MGM produced this send-up of the TV western hero craze. Smoky Callaway's old movies are being run on TV and are such a hit with kids that an enormous licensing potential develops for Smoky products and endorsements, plus the making of more Smoky movies. One small problem - Smoky done left the corral 10 years earlier and no one - including his agent (White) knows where he went. The ad agency partners (McGuire and MacMurray) find a lookalike, Stretch Barnes, a simple man with simple needs, and convince him to take Smoky's place, claiming that Smoky is dead. All goes well until Smoky's agent finds the real Callaway, a womanizing boozer, and brings him back.This is a fun film for baby boomers who grew up with Gabby Hayes, Roy Rogers, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers etc. etc. and who used all the products that carried their hero's face: the cereals, the lunch boxes, the toys. Howard Keel is terrific in the dual role of sweet, sensitive, aw shucks ma'm Stretch and the hard-drinking slob Smoky. McGuire is lovely in her role, and MacMurray does well as her less conscience-stricken partner.MGM takes the opportunity to plug its stars - there are cameos of Esther Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, and Clark Gable, and there are lots of future TV stars as well. Besides Jesse White, there's Stan Frieberg, Natalie Schaeffer, and in an uncredited role, Hugh Beaumont. Fun viewing.

Consider the time this film came out. It is one of the first feature films about the cinema's new rival, television. More specifically it is based on the renaissance of Hopalong Cassidy as an early television star.This film takes me back to when I was a lad in the early days of television when there was a need for programming. The first films that were shown on early television were grade B product from the studios which were not about to be re-released for the big screen. And of course those B westerns were in plentiful supply. In fact I have a theory that John Wayne's rapid rise to number one at the box office may have been in large part to the showing of his pre-Stagecoach westerns giving him valuable publicity for the A product he was currently working on.But the guy who had the biggest benefit was William Boyd who made his last Hopalong Cassidy picture in 1948. He had scraped together every bit of cash he could to buy all the rights to the Hopalong Cassidy films and character from producer Harry Sherman and author Clarence Mulford. So when those Cassidy films became a big hit on early television Boyd's career revived and he became a tycoon with all the Hoppy merchandise. And the craze was big, the film accurately depicts the merchandising bonanza that Hoppy was in real life and Smokey Callaway in this film.Like the Cassidy films in real life, the old films of B picture western star Smokey Callaway become a big hit on TV. They'd like to make more of them, but where's Smokey. TV programmers Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire would sure like to find him. Smokey's just dropped off the planet. MacMurray and McGuire dispatch former agent Jesse White to locate Callaway who was quite a boozer back in the day and nothing like his screen image.In the meantime they locate a cowboy from Colorado who is a Callaway doppelganger. Howard Keel plays both parts and plays them well. The two scheming TV programmers hire Keel on to impersonate his lookalike. But they get quite a bit more than they bargain for.Callaway Went Thataway is an enjoyable film about a forgotten era in our social history. Cowboys don't have quite the image they once did in America and I'm not sure how today's audience relates to a film about early television which we pretty much take for granted. Still it's a piece of nostalgia for me.