User Reviews

For an early Gene Autry Western, this one has a few interesting hooks to keep you entertained, chief among them the location in that far off western state of Georgia. I imagine it was necessary to pull off the premise of the title, since the story dealt with a community of 'turpentiners' who made their living off the by-products of the local pine forests. It set up a type of range feud between encroaching ranchers who needed more grazing space for their cattle, pitting them against the turpentiners, who relied on the forest for their livelihood. Autry gets caught in the middle trying to do the right thing by both sides, and winds up becoming alienated from both. It's the only picture I can remember where any Western hero of note (Autry, Rogers, Hoppy, etc.) actually had a father in the story.

I don't think I've ever seen Smiley Burnette looking as young before in a movie, to the point of being almost unrecognizable behind the mustache and meager girth. However when he lets out with the frog voice, there's no mistaking him. Ever the con man, Colonel Millhouse (Burnette) does some quick thinking on his feet when he declares a runaway team of horses a publicity stunt to help promote his Wild West Show.

There's a nominal love interest for Gene's character in the person of young Milly (Betty Bronson), who has an earnest crush on Gene and pines for him when he goes away to establish his career as a world champion cowboy (sorry, couldn't resist the pun). That sets up the ensuing action when Gene returns to Pine Ridge as the star of the Millhouse extravaganza.

The story moves along at a pretty rapid gallop, and you'll see some exciting horseback footage featuring Gene and the bad guys. I didn't see it as all that necessary to speed up some of the action footage the way director Joseph Kane did, for me it was a little distracting. Say, you know, I was curious about one thing - when Gene was late for his act in the Millhouse show, the Colonel threw in a ringer to impersonate him, but where did the Autry impersonator find a Champion impersonator?

This one moves along fairly quickly, mixing the dramatic story of the feud between families of cattlemen versus 'turpentiners' (those drawing turpentine from pine trees) over land use with the musical and Wild West Show performances of Gene Autry and a large cast. One of the tight little early Republic westerns.

Charles Middleton plays 'Gene Autry Sr.' head of the cattlemen who are seeking more grazing land for their cattle by burning down the pine trees. Betty Bronson plays Milly, the perky step daughter of the boss of the turpentiners, who wants to save them. Straight arrow Gene doesn't want any feud between the two families, but by trying to help both, quickly winds up their enemy, and is forced to leave Pine Ridge. Of course, Betty and Gene are in love with each other. All this within fifteen minutes! Unfortunately, I've only seen the edited version (Platinum disk) which then cuts to Gene triumphantly returning to the city of Pine Ridge as the star of Colonel Frog Millhouse's Wild West Show. Looked like something was cut, and sure enough, 7 minutes were taken out. As described by another reviewer here, the missing portion shows Milly's tearful goodbye, her pledge of love, and a montage of Gene's rise to popularity with the Show.

This is one of Joseph Kane's better pure action efforts. There are at least 5 running stirrup horse mounts -- were they Gene or (uncredited) Yakima Canutt? They looked too good to be Gene. We get the great evil villain Le Roy Mason, arch bad guy of over 170 films, who is also strongly featured in the outrageous 'Round Up Time in Texas' (1937), among countless others. Betty Bronson was the breakout star of 'Peter Pan' (1924), and was selected for the role by J.M. Barrie himself over the 30-year-old Mary Pickford. Betty's great mime and physical skills are briefly on display here. You can see her (in technicolor sequences no less!) as Mary the mother of Jesus in the 1925 silent version of 'Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.'

We get a good song written and sung by Gene, "A Song of the Saddle," and the deep voiced, hatchet faced Charles Middleton, killed off too early in the film. His immortal 'Ming the Merciless' ("Kill them! Kill them all!") is one for the ages, but we can see him as a singing prosecutor in 'Duck Soup' (1933), the evil Pa Stark in the serial 'Dick Tracy Returns' (1938) and as a pious clergyman befriending 'Doctor' Buster Crabbe in PRC's 'Jungle Man' (1941), among his many, many roles and cameos.

We also get 30s clichés: the hero being falsely accused of murder and going to jail; a shoot out behind rocks by the heroes and villains; and the chasing the villain off a cliff and fighting him in the water below. Even though the film is fast paced, it would have been better if the tension and war between the feuding sides, with Gene and Betty thrown in the middle, had been more of the main focus and the tension continuing throughout the film. What, you say? This film doesn't have pretensions to be Romeo and Juliet on horse back? What it does have, though, pushes it up to a 5.

"Yodelin' Kid From Pine Ridge" was originally released back in 1937.

Anyway - As the story goes - A range war is brewing between the local cattle ranchers and the turpentiners, who harvest the pine tree sap to make their product. One man wishes to take advantage of this situation by stirring up trouble between the groups in order to profit from each side's suffering.

Despite its somewhat off-putting title, this "The Yodelin Kid from Pine Ridge" shapes up as one of Gene Autry's most vibrant and exciting ventures. Even the often humdrum director, Joseph Kane, seems to have realized the movie's potential and pulled out all stops to make it as thrilling as possible.

Production values are great. Gene's co-star is the legendary Betty Bronson. What a thrill to see what a fine pair she and Gene make in this film!

The script by Jack Natteford and Stuart E. McGowan is top notch, matching the talents not only of our two stars but of the support cast led by Smiley Burnette (who has what amounts to a character role), LeRoy Mason (a well-spoken heavy), Charles Middleton (Autry's dull-witted dad) and Russell Simpson (a really nasty piece of work).

All the songs are wonderful too!

(Don't buy the Platinum DVD of this one as it's missing several important scenes. Buy the full-length Mill Creek disc).