Customer Reviews

Round-Up Time in Texas

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Round-Up Time in Texas, 1937 film

The film begins with a chuck wagon where cowboys are singing and relaxing from their hard work. A cable from South Africa tells of a diamond mine found by Gene's brother. [The lure of get-rich-quick still works.] Gene and Frog set sail. Robbers attack Gene's brother. Will he escape? A long-horned ox pulls a cart in Dunbar South Africa. [The men there speak with no accent.] A gambler runs the three shell game. Gene arrives with horses to sell. There is a song in the bar. Gene meets Cardigan and learns about his brother Tex. They recapture the horses let loose after the gate was opened. What is Gwen up to? £125 for a horse. Gene plans to find that diamond mine. But planted evidence causes the arrest of Gene and Frog, it is a crime to possess diamonds without a license. They escape the police and find Cardigan.

But a native tribe captures them all. Is there any hope? Its time for another song. The drums send a message, there will be danger ahead. The Cabin Kids perform. Can Frog heal a sick man? Can a call bring help to Frog? The Cape Police arrive. Cardigan captures Gene, but he escapes! Can they free the other prisoners? Cardigan flees but Gene catches up to rescue Gwen. The Cape Police sort things out so there is a happy ending. There is a song at the end.

Parts of this story reflect the culture of that era. Was this location chosen so this film could be exported to the British Empire?

The title of this movie is misleading -- all but the initial scene takes place in South Africa, where Gene and Frog have gone to meet Gene's brother, Tex, who has discovered a diamond mine. Thieves ambush Tex, his partner and their native servants before Autry and Millhouse can arrive, and the rest of the movie is spent by them trying to find and rescue Tex and catch the bad guys.
Gene falls in love with pretty Maxine Doyle (naturally) and when all the problems are solved she returns to the U.S. with him and Frog, plus a family of young native singers and their father, who happens to be the chief of a tribe of black Africans the boys encounter during their adventures.
It's an interesting, outside-the-box idea for a western, but it just doesn't work very well. The accents used by the white South Africans sound phony; many will find some of the treatment of blacks by the whites borderline distasteful in this racially-conscious day and age; there are too many songs included for a one-hour western, and not enough action; and while Smiley Burnette (Frog) is good comic relief in many of Gene's pictures, there's just too much of him in this one. Gene often seems to be just walking through the story, wondering what the heck he's doing in Africa.
This is not one of Gene's better movies -- but it holds mild interest as a curiosity of his early career.