Sioux City Sue

Even though Smiley Burnette is gone and Pat Buttram has not yet come on the scene, Sterling Holloway fills in nicely for some comic relief. Of course Texas gal Lynne Roberts is stunning and superb as the leading lady and famous wrestling announcer Richard Lane does well as the unscrupulous movie producer. The action commences when Gene falls prey to the fortunes of Hollywood only to be made a laughing stock. Big Gulliver (Ralph Sanford) gets a few extra licks in on Autry but in the meantime he and The Cass County Boys sing some amazing songs to help heal the wounds. Champion is waiting in the wings as always and is sorely needed as the action is only beginning to heat up.

When the story begins, Gene is on his way back home from the war and a couple talent scouts are out looking for a singing cowboy for the movies. After an exhaustive search with no positive results, they stumble upon Gene...who is very reluctant to be in movies! But, his ranch is in financial straits and so he agrees to go to Hollywood...and the rest is history. Or, so you'd suspect...but Gene is NOT happy with the end result of his work on the film. See the movie to see why.

This is the first film Gene Autry made after quite a few years serving as a pilot and flight instructor in WWII. So, making a film about him becoming a singing cowboy seems pretty natural. What isn't so natural is the absence, somewhat, of a sidekick. Gene's familiar partner, Smiley Burnette, had retired from the series and Pat Buttram, his next regular sidekick, was still in the future. So, they have Sterling Holloway in the film for comic relief...but he isn't Gene's friend or sidekick. This is odd....not a 'deal breaker'....but odd considering the usual Autry formula.

So is it any good? Well, the print currently on the Shout Factory Channel (on the Roku or Amazon Fire), is nearly perfect....which is unusual. Most old B-westerns are in terrible shape an often have been cut apart for TV...but this one is fortunately in excellent condition. As for the story and acting, it's pretty much what you'd expect...pleasant and undemanding entertainment. My only regret is that I love Gene's singing and while he sings quite a bit, they're not among his best songs. This actually surprised me, as you'd think after four years absence from films they'd offer up something a bit more memorable. Perhaps Republic Pictures had used their better songs for the new king of the studio during Gene's absence, Roy Rogers. Still, Autry should have been proud, as the film is every bit as good as his pre-war pics.

By the way, the Sue in the movie was played by Lynne Roberts--the daughter of the 1910s-20s vamp (the first actually), Theda Bara!

A highly enjoyable Autry western, boosted by a spirited supporting cast, a non-formula script, and a sprinkling of very listenable songs including the delightful title number. Autry was always an unlikely cowboy hero, short, stout, and wooden, yet his way with a song was always pleasant and natural, while his horsemanship and fight scenes were as convincing as any. His secret of success may well have been his ordinariness. Unlike a towering John Wayne, Crash Corrigan, or innumerable other icons of the Saturday matinée, Autry was always within reach of the audience, a reassuring nearness for those of us who knew we would never grow into the boots of a Wayne or Corrigan. Anyway, I suppose the audience for this kind of innocent bucolic fun dwindles each year as we matinée kids age and shuffle off, leaving such fare to film historians and curiosity seekers. Historians should find this film particularly revealing for its behind-the-scenes look at the making of musical westerns, and also for a fluttery Sterling Holloway, a most unlikely comic relief for the macho western, which, I suppose, amounted to someone's comment on the film industry since he appears as a production assistant. The leading lady also goes against type. A hard-driving studio scout, who overshadows the laid-back Autry, she defies patriarchal expectations by remaining with the studio at film's end. All in all, this programmer rises above the low expectations of a cowboy movie and remains well worth a look on several levels.

Talent scout Lynne Roberts and Sterling Holloway come to town, looking for a cowboy who can sing. After discovering that everyone else for miles around sounds like Minerval Urecal, they settle on rancher Gene Autry. He, of course, has no interest in the moom pitchers. However, when the Hollywood types accidentally stampede his cattle and run so much weight off them they can't be sold, he has to take up their offer or lose the ranch; in Hollywood, disasters caused by Sterling Holloway are considered acts of G*d, so you can't sue them for your losses. After Gene records several songs and takes part in one faked scene in which he rescues Miss Roberts' stunt double from a runaway shay, he returns home. However, at the premiere he discovers he's just providing the singing voice of a cartoon burro. Gene returns in a snit to his ranch, but Miss Roberts is in love with him, and studio head Pierre Watkins sees the footage of Gene and wants him for a series of Singing Cowboy movies. Whoops.

For his return to Republic Pictures after four years of the Army Air Corp, they dusted off the script of 1939's SHE MARRIED A COP. Gene sings a bunch of songs, including Woody Guthrie's "Oklahoma Hills". Director Frank MacDonald has some in-joke fun with the script, and fans of "the King of the Singing Cowboys" must have bee glad to see him back in the saddle. With Richard Lane, Pierre Watkins, and the Cass County Boys as a group of cowboys who carry bull fiddles on.

This action-filled Gene Autry entry indicates that Gene had lost none of his horse-opera appeal to his legion of fans following his service to our country in World War II. This was one of Gene's last films at Republic to fulfill his contract before ending his screen career with Columbia over another ten-year period, a decade which saw Gene successfully make the transition from movies to the new medium of television, which along with wise investments made him one of the wealthiest men around.

As a kid in the early 50's, I saw tons of Saturday matinée fodder. Most I don't recall, though I do remember the cowboy stars and their sidekicks. "Sioux City Sue" is an exception. I vividly remember the cartoon of the donkey with Gene Autry's voice warbling "Ridin' Double." In those halcyon days, big Hollywood stars thought it condescending to talk for cartoon characters, unlike today when movie icons find it highly lucrative and completely acceptable by their fans to be the voice of animated figures. In 1946, voice impersonators such as Mel Blanc often imitated stars such as Bogart, Bette Davis, and Gable, but those matinée idols would never have consented to do the voices themselves. Knowing that, today's viewer can well understand how embarrassing a western personage such as Gene Autry would feel seeing an animated donkey lip sync to one of his songs. That is also why this sequence is so memorable for the ones who saw it when released or re-released.

There is no Smiley Burnette to assist Gene with the songs and humor. He was now tied up with other partners, Sunset Carson, Charles Starrett, and the like. Pat Buttram had yet to enter the picture. Actually, for his first post-war outing, Gene has no comical sidekick. The marvelous Sterling Holloway (who later was the voice of an animated character of his own, "Winnie the Pooh") is in cahoots with those attempting to exploit Gene's talents. Though comical, he is a sycophant for the studio big wigs.

There are several good songs in "Sioux City Sue," even if it is easy to tire quickly of the title ditty, one of the big hits of 1946. Woody Guthrie's "Oklahoma Hills" is one of his best, co-written by Woody's cousin who recorded the hit version of this autobiographical creation. Besides "Oklahoma Hills," the other gem is Jimmy Hodges's "Someday You'll Want Me To Want You," recorded by many artists over the years, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee, and Ray Charles. Gene does such an admirable job singing it that he repeats it three times before the film is over. His amour is the captivating Lynne Roberts who plays Sioux City Sue Warner. Helping Gene in the singing department are the Cass County Boys, not the Sons of The Pioneers but not bad.

The story is easy to follow. A Hollywood studio looking for a singing cowboy finds Gene and in the process nearly bankrupts him. He is offered a part in a picture, not knowing that it is a voice over for a cartoon. Humiliated Gene walks out of the film preview. Sue Warner becomes distraught over the situation and seeks forgiveness. Testing her sincerity, Gene offers her the job of chief cook and bottle washer. She comes to love the ranch and the cowboy way of life. In the meantime, the studio head sees the film footage of the real-life Gene in action and orders his underlings to find the cowboy and sign him up. One of the men Gene had a run-in with and beat up decides to get revenge by blowing up the dam to flood Gene's ranch and drown his cattle. This segment of the picture is one of the highlights, with effective camera shots and daredevil stunt work.

"Sioux City Sue" lets everyone know that Gene Autry is back in town and ready for action.