Stardust on the Sage (1942)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

All the elements of the winning Autry programmer are present—good plot, lovely ladies, hard riding, plus music and humor—all smoothly blended. Nothing really exceptional unless you count that sudden gusher out the hillside. Gene's working to keep a gold mine out of hands of devious plotters, and also uphold the virtues of cattle and horses. Of course Gene knows about heritage of the old West, at least the movie version. Then too, Republic always supplied the star with good production values. Also, look for the great Tom London as one of the baddies. No matinée oater would be complete without him. I can only guess at how many hundreds he was in over the years. On the tuneful side, little Edith Fellows manages to inject a winsome juvenile presence without being obnoxious, while Frog battles the bad guys when not offering up his slapstick brand of comedy. Nothing special here—just another solid installment of Gene's outstanding years with Republic Studios.A "6" on the matinée scale.

Well you have to hand it to Gene Autry, he wasn't intimidated by other Western cowboy heroes. In 1942's "Heart of the Rio Grande", there was a line that referenced The Lone Ranger. In this picture, Nancy Drew (Louise Currie) comments on her sister Judy's (Edith Fellows) infatuation with a boy named Curly by stating "Last week it was John Wayne!" This time out, Gene manages to get jammed up by some inadvertent comments he makes to radio entertainer Nancy Drew, and winds up having them go out on the air completely out of context. It turns out he recommends the local ranchers invest in a failed mine just as the head of the Cattlemens Association, Jeff Drew (William Henry) is about to go broke by investing in the Atlas Mining Company. You guessed it, the villain of the piece, Dan Pearson (Emmett Vogan) has just bought out the Atlas stock, thereby controlling the funds that the ranchers have invested.If Republic Pictures was going for a record here for how many songs they could cram into a sixty four minute film I wouldn't be surprised. I think the most I could come up with in a prior Autry film would have been about seven, but by my unofficial count I came up with nine in this one. Granted, there was a quickie single chorus of 'You Are My Sunshine' at the finale, followed by a sing-a-long of 'Home on the Range' and the words to 'Deep in the Heart of Texas' on screen to help guide the viewing audience. The earlier musical chores were creatively divided among Gene and his co-stars, with Smiley Burnette doing 'Wouldn't You Like To Know?', and Edith Fellows joining Gene in a duet on a couple more tunes.If Gene seemed perplexed in this one, it would have been for good reason. Just like one time presidential candidate John Kerry, it looked like Gene was for investing in the mining company before he was against it. Somehow it all worked out, as Gene managed to keep everyone just enough off balance to finally save the day.

Because it was filmed on the heels of Heart Of The Rio Grande which also had Edith Fellows starring, and Deep In The Heart Of Texas for one of its songs I've always considered this a nice if slightly weaker bookend for it.It's goodies vs baddies again with a rather complicated plot involving baddie Emmett Vogan and his henchmen trying to wrest a mine from a weak goodie Bill Henry with a nice sister Louise Currie with a radio station and a singing juvenile sister Fellows who's smitten with the imperturbable Gene Autry when he blows into town with Frog. Gene is framed via the radio and has to clear himself and generally save the day. Although nice to watch I preferred June Storey as the heroine in these tales – Currie here plays a woman named Nancy Drew – but Gene is the only detective here! Short on action but compensated for with plenty of lilting music, my favourites being Goodnight Sweetheart (to Currie changing the car tyre), I'll Never Let You Go (duet with Fellows in the "radio" studio) and the final medley including a sing-a-long version of Deep In The Heart Of Texas for the original cinema audience.Nothing special but with a rousing climax it's a satisfying film overall to an Autry fan like me, others might have a job getting anything from it.