Sunset in Wyoming

"Sunset in Wyoming", despite the title and it starring Gene Autry, isn't really a western, though it is set in contemporary western America.

In the area around Gene's ranch, there have been huge problems with flooding. Much of it's made worse by the local lumber company who is stripping the forests. While the other ranchers are ready to go to war, Gene convinces them to let him try talking to the owner of the lumber outfit, Mr. Wentworth. Wentworth is sympathetic but also very cagey. Instead of stopping the logging, he sics Gene on his very haughty and annoying daughter and her really uptight boyfriend. What gives? What's really happening?

This film is a nice change of pace for Autry and isn't a typical pistols and horses epic. I also thought the singing was better than usual. Overall, a very nice little B-film....just not a western.

It's a rip-roaring opening and close, but the in-between smacks of tame, high-toned city life. Frog and Gene are out to help local ranchers save their land from timber harvesters who've de-nuded the hillsides, causing mudslides that ruin the land. Sounds like a modern environmental message, especially when Gene and co. want the state to take over the forest and turn it into a protected wildlife park. But to do that, they've got to get political heavy- hitters in the city to support them.

It's not a typical Autry programmer, tamer than usual. No hard riding or fast shooting. There are a couple of gang fights where lumbermen square off against Gene's men.Then too, the song lineup unfortunately is pretty undistinguished for an Autry film. Nonetheless, Frog gets some amusing bits, especially when his down-home ways mix with city sophisticates. Should say those roaring river effects are real well done nail-biters and worth waiting for. Anyway, if you like to see mainly dress-up, this may be your Autry programmer.

A "5", at best, on a matinée scale.