4.0 out of 5 stars
Working Hard to Save the Ranch, July 27, 2010
Boots and Saddles, 1937 film
The story begins with a dozen riders in the arid southwest country. Smiley provides comic relief. A steam train arrives at the station with Edward, Earl of Granville, the heir to the ranch. [Is that an Eton uniform?] What will happen to the cowboys if the business is sold off? Edward takes the reins. The ranch is like a feudal estate welcoming the new Lord. The people there are the help, not the rent-paying tenants. Edward will ride the sorrel. "Leg up, please." [Note the use of doubles in the rescue scene.] If they can break and train their hundreds of horses and sell them to the Army they can save the ranch from foreclosure. Rancher Neal wants to buy this ranch, but Edward will take Foreman Autry's advice. Edward adapts. [Note the dust from the dirt roads.] There is a song.
"This heat gets me." Frog plays the trumpet in Fort Wayne. We see the Cavalry performing. There is humor in Frog's trumpet calls. Blind obedience? There is humor in Gene's meeting with the Colonel's servant. There is a song at the Spanish Café. Gene is given advice for speaking to the Colonel. [Can he read the girl?] "Thanks for telling me." A joke about deafness? Autry's bid is the same as Neal's. [No collusion here.] Whose horses are better? A race of the twelve best will decide tomorrow. But two men try to shoot Gene when he inspects the race ground. Young Edward knows a trick, so does Frog. Gene sings a song while the maid scrubs the floor. They all fall down! A parrot speaks to Frog. More drama with Miss Allen. A fire starts in the stable where Gene's horses are kept! Spud rescues his horse, and Gene rescues him. The guard was clunked on the head.
The next day the horses compete in the race. Autry's men wear white hats, Neal's men wear black hats. [Symbolism?] Observers note the progress. A chase on bicycles! Neal's men are ahead, but "Autry wins". Larkin tells who paid him. There is a happy ending, and Gene sings "Boots and Saddle".
This story had a good mixture of drama, humor, and songs to entertain the audience. It was unusual to use the Army as part of a movie then. Autry's movies were set in the modern world, not in the 1870s-1880s. This simplified production and made it more realistic. The Army dismounted permanently in 1943 when the Cavalry was mechanized. The Army did try out bicycles in place of marching for troop movement before The Great War. The Swiss Army pioneered this to quickly mobilize without more expensive transport.
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