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.

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.

One of the interesting things about the picture is that Jay Silverheels plays a WW2 vet (Lakohna) living on the reservation and Clayton Moore is one of the thugs who is sent by the local thief/merchant to rob the Navahos. He steals and kills some sheep, and then mugs a chief for a squash blossom necklace. He and Autry do most of the fighting in the film.The kicker is, the movie, and the premier episode of The Lone Ranger, both arrived on Sept 15, 1949.An interesting moment comes when Autry sees Lakohna's medal and asks, "Guadacanal?" to which Silverheels replies, "Iwo Jima."

I've seen a number of Gene Autry movies and, in my opinion, this is NOT one of the better. Maybe I'm just becoming too negative. Aha!!! I know what's missing: the sidekick. Minimal comic relief. Then there're those stereotypically-wrong characteristics of the Indians. (I know...portrayals were very different in 1949.) At least they're not the villains here. Quite the contrary: this shows how they were victimized in yet another way. At first, Gene is upset by their raids, but he later learns why, which is then still unbeknownst to the local constabulary. So, for awhile there, Gene's on the outs with the law. Interestingly, this flick contains BOTH Clayton Moore (as a bad guy) AND Jay Silverheels (as a college-educated Indian) BEFORE they were The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Also, this film must have been released near Christmas 'cause - get ready for a couple of song-standards of that season toward it's end. Some other tunes were a little TOO hokey and juvenile for my tastes, even taking into account the behavior of the era.