Springtime in the Rockies

"Springtime in the Rockies" is a light-weight B-movie starring Gene Autry--the singing cowboy. As you'd expect, he sang a few songs during this hour-long film. However, one of them (the first in the film) had a rather strange setup. When the ranchers are angry at someone because he brought sheep onto the range, Gene breaks into song. Why? Because, according to him, "It's hard to sing and be mean at the same time"--among the lamest reasons I can recall in a cowboy film! Such is the sort of stuff you'll see and hear in this silly but enjoyable film.

Soon after this kerfuffle settles, the woman who owns the ranch where Gene is a foreman arrives from back East. She has never been to the ranch and she and her college friends are occasionally annoying caricatures--and Gene decides to have fun at their expense. So, instead of showing them to the beautiful ranch house, he takes them to a broken-down shack which he tells them IS the ranch house. Before he can tell them about his big joke, however, the goofy owner buys sheep! What's Gene to do? While the film is a bit fun in spots and is a rather inconsequential film, it may offend some. Again and again, the young women are the butt of jokes, as they are 'silly feminists'. While it's true that sometimes Gene and his friend Frog (Smiley Burnett) get theirs sometimes, in the end it's up to the men to save these poor women. And, the resolution to the problems seems to come way too quickly and easily. But, the songs are generally nice, Burnett makes for a nice sidekick and the film has a few good moments. On balance, a decent time-passer but not much more.