The Old Corral (1936)

So much average

Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Chicago gangsters arrive in town in their limousine looking for songstress Eleanore Spenser(Hope Manning). They want to silence the songbird, because she can finger them for murder. Local sheriff Autry will do his best to straighten things out. Deputy Frog Millhouse(Smiley Burnette)tries to find a safe place to hide the singer; while Gene is rounding up the singing O'Keefe brothers(Sons of the Pioneers), who were previously arrested and released to help in taking on the gangsters and run them out of Turquoise City.There is always time for song during an Autry flick: Eleanore will sing "With All My Heart", "Sons of the Pioneers" will vocalize on "Down Along the Rio Grande" and Gene will sing "Money Ain't No Use Anyhow" and the title song "Old Corral". Note that another singing cowboy Roy Rogers is a member of the Sons of the Pioneers. Also in the cast: Lon Chaney, Jr., John Bradford, Charles Sullivan and Merrill McCormick.

This is a great Autry outing with a very young 24? year old Leonard Slye with the newly formed Sons of the Pioneers. One of the most beautiful of the Pioneers recordings is here "Silent Trails" to this fan a better song than "Tumbling Tubleweeds" or "Cool Water." The exterior scenes were the oft-used Iverson Ranch, very recognizable by the chase roads and rock formations. The town scenes were the Republic Studios western set which i think was new at this 1936 time frame. It became in the 1960's CBS Studio Center, back lot location for Gunsmoke, Big Valley, Cimmaron Strip and other westerns of the time. As far as Old Corral is concerned its a fine movie, some say hokey but not this fan. I'd rather see these than some newer westerns. Autry and the pioneers, Smiley and the rest are fine in the film. Only bad stuff to this fan were Oscar and Elmer, who I guess were maybe a radio duo or something similar at the time. Could have done without those two. They were in a couple of Autry films.

Old Corral is a very enjoyable film. Gene Autry proves that he stands in a class on his own, showing good acting skills, a great singing voice (as always) and the proper energy that the role demands. Hope (Irene) Manning is pretty good as Eleanor Spencer aka June Edwards, but one can easily tell why most people still don't know her as a great actress. And, of course, Smiley Burnett is the quintescential Gene Autry sidekick, always a welcome screen presence as far as I'm concerned.Since I do enjoy some country music, I liked the appearance of the Sons of the Pioneers, and a young Roy Rogers was supposed to be among them. I only really noticed him at the beginning, when he and his gang hold up the tour bus. After that, he drifts in with the background extras.Then there's the action scenes. They hold up pretty well, although the immobility of the camera, some fairly transparent visual effects and clunky editing kind of hinder the climax from being as climactic as it could be. All in all, though, it's a good film that I recommend for anybody who wants to watch a enjoyable classic western.

"The Old Corral" has most of what you could ask for in one of these old Westerns, with good action and interesting characters, as well as the variety entertainment that you expect in a Gene Autry feature. It has Autry as a sheriff having to contend with a family of outlaws at the same time that he is trying to protect a woman on the run, and while the plot often lacks credibility, it's entertaining and moves at a good pace. Besides Autry, it has Smiley Burnette in one of his usual roles, and the supporting cast features brief appearances by Lon Chaney, Jr., Roy Rogers, and Edward Platt - quite an assortment. Certainly there's nothing remarkable here, but it's good entertainment that most fans of older Westerns will find enjoyable.