Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This film is one of Gene's best, from the period (1948-'51) when he was making the finest B-Westerns of that era, just before they bit the dust.Autry has to try to capture two bank robbers, one of whom kills his own twin brother in an effort to convince the law that he is deceased, himself. Then he kills his partner in crime as well. Why share the loot when you don't have to? The plot takes some twists and turns (but don't good plots usually do that?), including Gene's buddy Pat Buttram's awaiting nervously while his wife prepares to give birth to their baby; and the arrival, late in the movie, of a "mystery lady" who has a tie to the head robber.The climax comes on a speeding freight train, whence the baddie has fled to try to escape Gene. They engage in a slam-bang fight in an open boxcar, won by Gene (naturally). The chase aboard the train and the fight were staged on an actual moving train, and both Gene and the crook appear to have done their own (dangerous) stunt work.All in all, this Autry is different, action filled, and well worth watching. It's Gene in his later, more somber persona.

Well I always took Gene for a pretty smart guy, so why would he sing a song with the line 'the ache in my heart is for you' to a lady who was just introduced to him as a widow. I'm still scratching my head over that one.Without an opening song, this Autry flick hinted at being something different. So let's see if I can put this all together - two bank robbers on the run hijack a train locomotive, wind up stealing a couple of horses, make their way to the cabin of the main outlaw's brother, kill the brother after shaving his beard to have him resemble his sibling, burn down the building where the body is being held to thwart a positive ID, have the purported widow of the 'dead' man show up, and top it all off with the main villain Bartlett (Kenne Duncan) killing off all his partners along the way. Whew! Through it all, Gene managed to figure everything out and stop Bartlett atop a runaway train! Now that's a cowboy hero.Fortunately you had Pat Buttram around for comic relief, and if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time ever in an Autry story where Pat's married and his wife is expecting a baby. The running gimmick in the picture has Mike (Pat's character) being called away for the blessed event only to have it wind up a false alarm each time until it actually happens. Then he hears the baby crying via a short wave radio transmission from the Doc's house! Maybe even more interesting, to me at least, were the menu signs in Mike's diner. You had your traditional ham and eggs for sixty cents, a roast beef sandwich for fifty five cents and doughnuts for one thin dime. But then, and this might have been to see if anyone was paying attention, Mike had oysters for forty cents and squid for thirty cents! In the Wild West - squid!?!? I guess you had to stay focused more than usual for this Gene Autry presentation. With all the twists and turns, there was only time enough for a couple of tunes, and just as you didn't have an opener, there was no closing song either. Instead, there were a couple of puzzling questions to wrap your head around - like could a sheriff really put you in jail for refusing to join a posse? It happened here to Gene. And seriously, would it only take a half hour for the doctor to do a facial surgery on bad guy Bartlett to change his identity?

Crackling good Autry, full of action, scenery, and two girls to ogle instead of just one. The plot's more complex than usual, but nicely worked out. The stunt work atop the train is an eye- catcher, and I think Gene did his own. Much of the action is woven into that great Lone Pine backdrop of the Southern Sierras, so there's a lot to look at. Then too, sidekick Buttram has a more serious role than usual, with little buffoonery.Maybe the hardest thing is seeing Alan Hale Jr., the genial Captain from Gilligan's Island, playing a devious bad guy. Good to see Tom London (Tom) a veteran of a thousand and one oaters picking up another payday. He always looked so right for a cowboy part. Gene manages a couple of solo songs, both familiar western standards, so this is primarily an action feature, not an Autry musical. Anyway, as the movie title tells you, it's a grittier story than usual, and a good one it is.