Simply Perfect

Good movie but grossly overrated

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Thank goodness for the Alabama Hills. Those Neolithic rocks with the high Sierras in the background have always added a lot to the most unexceptional oater, including this pretty good one. Okay, gold hijacks have been a standard feature of westerns for decades, but here it's wagon loads of women that sort of get hijacked. And from the looks of the cuties on board, I'd hijack them too. No need to detail more of the plot, which others have already done.Generally, it's an unexceptional Autry programmer, though well stocked with extras (Columbia studios, I bet) along with an entertaining mix of action, humor (Buttram & Infuhr), and song. I especially liked "On Top of Old Smoky", which Gene gives his most pleasing croon. Then too, I've blown out enough candles to recall when it was a popular mega-hit on the radio. Good thing too that Gene was able to get director English who had proved he knows how to put the cowboy elements together. Anyhow, it may not be Gene's best, but fans certainly won't be disappointed.

Lately it seems that I can count on a Gene Autry film to introduce me to a vocabulary word I've never heard before. Early in the picture, when Breezy (Pat Buttram) thinks he discovers gold and it turns out to be a cuff-link that he lost in a stream, he declares "Isn't that a spizzerinctum!" It sounded like gibberish, but upon doing a google search, it turns out that one of the meanings derived from this word is that of a 'tawdry ornamentation', though it's more often used in connection with having energy and ambition. Just remember, Pat Buttram came up with it.As for the story, this one might be considered a mature themed Western considering it's content. As newly elected mayor of Quartz Creek, Gene decides it would be a good idea to place an ad in an Eastern newspaper seeking women to head West to balance out the population consisting of all men and one woman. She's Bee Laverne (Christine Larsen), who's had it with her conniving fiancée Steve Guilford (Russell Hayden). Guilford likes Gene's idea and throws in with Fandango Bar owner Tod Rawlings (Harry Lauter), but Rawlings sees it as an opportunity to charge five hundred dollars a head to broker a future wife business. Rawlings' henchmen head out to hijack the wagon train heading to Quartz Creek with the single women.Along with the females heading West, there's a sub-plot involving Guilford's robbery of seventy two thousand dollars in gold from a stagecoach bound for Quartz Creek. He launders the gold through local claims he's bought up including Breezy's, but with Gene's nose for trouble, it's not long before he figures out the connection."Valley of Fire" is not big on songs; in anticipation of the women's arrival Gene offers one up called 'Here's to the Ladies', and later on he sings a version of 'On Top of Old Smoky'. As is often the case in Gene's pictures, Gail Davis shows up as one of the marriage prospects on the wagon train, something of a gold digger starting out, but once involved with the larcenous Guilford, decides it's a better idea to stick with a 'man of the land'. That would be Gene.

Cowboy hero Gene Autry goes into politics and gets himself elected mayor of a gold camp town which has the problem of their being only one woman in the whole settlement. And that woman is Christine Larson who with Harry Lauter runs the local saloon and gambling palace where the hard earned money from the miners is taken.Mayor Autry decides that the best thing to do is kick the gamblers out and bring in some women and give these miners some brides and some other forms of recreation. But Lauter gets a deal going with another sex starved gold settlement nearby and the race is on.In the meantime Russell Hayden is a second villain here who robs stages carrying gold, kills the drivers, and then launders it through his own mining claim. He takes a fancy to Gail Davis, one of the brides and also goes in with Lauter on his bride deal. That does not please Larson who does not have a good history with Hayden.Russell Hayden was generally a B movie western hero, but occasionally went to the dark side. He's best remembered as Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick Lucky Jenkins. He's a slick article in this film.This subject was also dealt with in a much more brutal and grim fashion in the MGM western Westward The Women starring Robert Taylor which also came out in 1951. Even so with white hat cowboy hero Gene Autry this film touches on some non-family film subjects like sex in the west ever so gingerly.Pat Buttram plays Gene's sidekick as he was starting to do on the big screen and the small. Valley Of Fire was a bit more adult of a film than the normal Gene Autry film of the time. And you sure wouldn't see Roy Rogers doing stuff like this.

This 1951 sepia-tone feature by Gene and company is fast-paced, entertaining and superior to most similar period films. Gene Autry aids lawman Pat Butram in helping tame the male-populated metropolis. Former Hopalong Cassidy co-star Russ Hayden plays a bad guy who woos the lovely Gail Davis.I enjoyed this one, with its novel plot and good acting. Gene's voice is in fine form here and his chemistry with Davis was notable. Sepia-tone was pretty much a gimmick, to cover the fact that these films were not in color, as many of Roy Rogers films were around that time (TruColor).Don't be put off by the singin' cowboy genre..... This film will be enjoyed by most western fans of all ages.