The Old Corral (1936)

Wonderful character development!

Disturbing yet enthralling

A lot of fun.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

In "The Old Corral" (1936), Republic managed to assemble such a fine cast into the fast-moving yet laden-with-musical-numbers script that even director Joe Kane was inspired to contribute some unusually stylish and super-competent work. Mind you, this is a favorite Autry vehicle not only with me but with Roy Rogers' fans (the scene in which Gene forces Roy to sing is a classic). Lon Chaney, Junior's fans are cheering too, although in point of fact, Lon has actually little to do. Although cramming an unusual number of songs into 56 minutes (fourteen to be precise), a fair bit of action is also center stage, featuring fast inserts and exciting stunt work. (Formerly available both on an excellent Echo Bridge and Platinum Disc DVD).

I wonder what theatergoers in 1936 thought when they expected cowboys and instead were greeted in the opening scenes by an urban nightclub. Good thing action soon transfers to cowboy country. Eleanor (Manning) is on the run after witnessing a murder in the city, and now fortunately she has Sheriff Gene looking after her. But there are baddies in cowboy country too. So Gene ends up battling two gangs instead of the usual one.This is a very early Autry western, before, for example, Frog (Burnette) settled into his clownish comedy relief. Here he plays a deputy in fairly straightforward fashion. It's weird, however, seeing cowboys alongside the old-timey four-wheel flivvers. Nothing special about the 60-minutes. Just a pretty good mix of action and song. Still, I wish it were a better selection of tunes since the Sons Of The Pioneers are on hand to vocalize along with Gene. Also look fast for Roy Rogers as a cowboy henchman, along with Lon Chaney Jr. in a sizable baddie role before he became the definitive Wolf Man (1941). All in all, it's a decent Autry programmer with some interesting features of its own.

The Old Corral starts out a whole lot like the Bing Crosby Paramount classic, She Loves Me Not. If you'll remember chorus girl Miriam Hopkins witnesses a gangland murder and flees from the mob. Here it's Irene Manning who's a nightclub entertainer who sees John Bradford do the same thing and flees out west.Well, those big city gangsters are way out of their element when they're tangling with Gene Autry. Of course not everyone in the west is as friendly as Autry. There's Cornelius Keefe and Lon Chaney, Jr. who recognize who Manning is before Autry does. They own the local saloon and under the guise of giving her a break, hire Manning to entertain, but in the mean time call Bradford hoping to curry favor with the gangland boss.If that's not enough sheriff Gene has to contend with the Sons of the Pioneers and their lead singer, one Leonard Slye who play a brother singing group who take to being outlaws as a way to gain notoriety and a radio contract. Of course in two years that lead singer left the group and started putting out his own westerns for Republic and Herbert J. Yates under the name of Roy Rogers.I agree with a previous reviewer that Manning's soprano and Autry's western twang don't exactly mesh. It might be why Gene mostly didn't go in for singing co-stars throughout his career, unlike his famous rival at Republic. Of course Gene didn't marry a co-star the way Roy did.The scene where Manning is trying to make a go of saloon singing and falling on her derrière until Gene helps out is reminiscent of Jeanette MacDonald trying to sing for her supper in Rose Marie. Jeanette had a co-star though who was more suitable to her voice.The Old Corral is kind of dopey, especially the bit about The Sons of the Pioneers. Still it's a great bit of history, an historic meeting between Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

Only a year after starring in the action serial THE PHANTOM EMPIRE, Gene Autry was already a singing cowboy star. In this film he costars with sidekick Smiley Burnette and a young Roy Rogers, who does not get individual billing but is grouped along with the Sons of the Pioneers. A highpoint of this film is Good Guy Gene ordering Bad Guy Roy to yodel at gunpoint! Also in the movie is a young (29) Lon Chaney as the manager of a gambling hall who shows a very wide yellow streak when some big city gangsters decide to muscle in. Don't worry, Gene and Smiley will save the day and have time to sing a few songs too.