I have to admit, I was a bit shocked to hear Gene utter the line in my summary above, but that was before he learned why the local Indian tribe was using his property for grazing land and occasionally taking some of his stock. Apparently they were malnourished and starving, victims of a thieving trading post owner and his band of henchmen. Gene has a quick change of heart and teams up with Jay Silverheels to take down Smiley Martin (Frank Richards) and the rest of his bunch by the time the story's over.
For TV and movie Western fans there's a gold nugget of trivia offered here by the casting for the picture. Not only do Silverheels and Clayton Moore both appear in the story, but their own long running series 'The Lone Ranger' debuted on the very same day as this picture's release - September 15th, 1949. For Silverheels, this is not a Tonto style characterization; he portrays a college educated Indian who's also performed military service for his country. Fair to say that Gene was making his own small contribution to Western movie revisionism with this picture in which the villains were white and the Indians actually come riding to the rescue at the end of the picture.
After a couple of early songs, one by Gene and another by the Indian school children, I was momentarily perplexed when all of a sudden Gene's on horseback singing 'Here Comes Santa Claus' with Hank Patterson riding alongside in a Santa outfit. That's followed up by the school choir offering a respectful version of 'Silent Night'. I have to say, those kids sounded awful darn good and quite honestly I was looking for a professional choir to be listed in the credits. The picture's worth a look just to hear those youngsters sing.
For TV and movie Western fans there's a gold nugget of trivia offered here by the casting for the picture. Not only do Silverheels and Clayton Moore both appear in the story, but their own long running series 'The Lone Ranger' debuted on the very same day as this picture's release - September 15th, 1949. For Silverheels, this is not a Tonto style characterization; he portrays a college educated Indian who's also performed military service for his country. Fair to say that Gene was making his own small contribution to Western movie revisionism with this picture in which the villains were white and the Indians actually come riding to the rescue at the end of the picture.
After a couple of early songs, one by Gene and another by the Indian school children, I was momentarily perplexed when all of a sudden Gene's on horseback singing 'Here Comes Santa Claus' with Hank Patterson riding alongside in a Santa outfit. That's followed up by the school choir offering a respectful version of 'Silent Night'. I have to say, those kids sounded awful darn good and quite honestly I was looking for a professional choir to be listed in the credits. The picture's worth a look just to hear those youngsters sing.