One of Gene Autry's most amusing films, all the better for taking the star out of his familiar horse opera surroundings. Of course, Autry is accompanied on his journey by usual sidekicks Smiley Burnette and Champion "The Wonder Horse," but the fact is that it takes him across the country with a pair of engaging girls. One of them (Mary Lee, I think) is sort of a country-western version of Judy Garland and the other plays an engaging young heiress on the lam from marriage. There's also a boy running from mobsters who try to kidnap him to blackmail his father into not testifying against their boss. There's a lot of funny situations, of course some fast riding and straight shooting, plus lots of pretty good songs. Pure escape and worth the trip.
8 Reviews
The Runaway Bride Meets Little Lord Fauntleroy!
planktonrules4 August 2020
"Gaucho Serenade" is a very enjoyable Gene Autry film that is, believe it or not, much like "Runaway Bride" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" combined. However, oddly, there's nothing about Gauchos in the film and it all takes place in the States....thousands and thousands away from the Gauchos in Argentina an Uruguay! So, no...Gene does NOT head to South American and the closest thing to a Gaucho was Duncan Renaldo...a guy originally from Romania but who played Hispanic characters (such as The Cisco Kid).
When the story begins, some crooks are worried that Frederick Willoughby will talk. Willoughby is in San Quentin for a crime he didn't commit...and there's a huge incentive for him to tell the authorities what he knows about the crooks. So, to stop him, they meet his son's boat when it arrives from the UK and plan to kidnap the kid. As for Ronnie Willoughby, he pretty much does a Freddie Bartholomew impersonation...complete with the patrician British accent! But instead of him being kidnapped, he accidentally gets in Gene and Smiley's car...and the pair feel sorry for him and take him out west. But the kid is a bit of a dope...and tells them he wants to meet his dad at Rancho San Quentin!
Soon after hooking up with the kid, Gene and Smiley come upon two sisters, (June Story and Mary Lee...each of which made almost a dozen films with Autry over the years). The older sister is running away from a marriage she doesn't want...and soon the five of them are headed west to California. But eventually the kid is bound to learn that his father is in prison AND crooks will catch up to them.
This is an enjoyable time passer. But I cannot give it a higher score for one reason...the music is pretty dull compared to many Gene Autry movies. Not a memorable song in this one...and, unlike most singing, I really like Autry's tunes and missed his better and more familiar melodies.
When the story begins, some crooks are worried that Frederick Willoughby will talk. Willoughby is in San Quentin for a crime he didn't commit...and there's a huge incentive for him to tell the authorities what he knows about the crooks. So, to stop him, they meet his son's boat when it arrives from the UK and plan to kidnap the kid. As for Ronnie Willoughby, he pretty much does a Freddie Bartholomew impersonation...complete with the patrician British accent! But instead of him being kidnapped, he accidentally gets in Gene and Smiley's car...and the pair feel sorry for him and take him out west. But the kid is a bit of a dope...and tells them he wants to meet his dad at Rancho San Quentin!
Soon after hooking up with the kid, Gene and Smiley come upon two sisters, (June Story and Mary Lee...each of which made almost a dozen films with Autry over the years). The older sister is running away from a marriage she doesn't want...and soon the five of them are headed west to California. But eventually the kid is bound to learn that his father is in prison AND crooks will catch up to them.
This is an enjoyable time passer. But I cannot give it a higher score for one reason...the music is pretty dull compared to many Gene Autry movies. Not a memorable song in this one...and, unlike most singing, I really like Autry's tunes and missed his better and more familiar melodies.
One of Gene Autry's best.
michaelRokeefe3 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
You can't go too wrong with a singing straight-arrow cowboy. Gene Autry and his sidekick Frog Milhouse(Smiley Burnett)are heading home from New York City via automobile with Gene's horse, Champion, in a horse trailer. Westward and onward Gene and Frog find a young man named Ronnie Willoughby(Clifford Severn Jr.)trying to hitch a ride. The boy joins the two thinking they were sent by his father to pick him up and take him to his father's ranch. Well there isn't such; because Mr. Willoughby is in San Quentin Prison after being framed by a big packing company. To keep the elder Willoughby from testifying against the company, it is thought a good idea to kidnap young Ronnie. Plenty of action and reasons to belt out a tune or two; cause now filling out the movie is a runaway bride played by Joyce Halloway with a precocious younger sister(Mary Lee). Other cast members: Joseph Crehan, Smith Ballew, Wade Boteler, William Ruhl and Duncan Renaldo. A few of the tunes in this 66 minute Republic Pictures feature: "The Singing Hills", "Wide Open Spaces", "A Song of Sunset", "Keep Rollin" and of course the "Gaucho Serenade".
Sweet Road Western
antonio195221 February 2001
As Gene and Frog cross the USA they meet up with 2 sets of stowaways, two sisters running away from a wedding ceremony and a boy being chased by criminals. As Gene sings several pleasant songs the movie moves at a rapid pace never dragging and includes a great railroad hijacking sequence. The new print from the Autry museum is perfect in every way and makes this movie indeed a serenade As b-westerns go this a 10.
"Mr. Autry, please consider all past insults null and void!"
classicsoncall14 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I'm guessing that not a whole lot of thought went into putting the story together for this picture. There are just so many disparate elements to it that if you're paying close attention you'll just wind up scratching your head. It starts off right away when Gene and Frog find they don't have enough money to book passage on a ship to California from New York, so they wind up driving. Now why would they want to do that anyway, huh?
It continues from there when a young teenager schooled in London hooks up with the boys to join his father, not knowing that the San Quentin he's looking for is a state penitentiary and not a ranch. June Storey's character is on the run from one wedding ceremony and eloping to another with Smith Bellew, who doesn't even say 'Hi' to her when she arrives with Gene later on!! See what I mean?
Now don't get me wrong, if you like Gene's pictures this one's as entertaining as any of them, offering a whole host of musical numbers and a couple of cute young ladies (June Storey and Mary Lee) to complement the action, but at times it almost feels like an Abbott and Costello flick with all the zany stuff going on.
Somehow the Gaucho Serenade of the title is shoe-horned into the story when the whole gang finds themselves at a Mexican cantina after getting a flat tire, and the only way Gene can come up with the dough to have it fixed is to win a talent show. But the grand prize is the equivalent of twenty five dollars in groceries, so they have to rely on Frog's second place showing - he wins a used tire!! so they can replace the flat!!
Well it goes on like this to an eventual satisfactory conclusion with youngster Ronnie Willoughby (Clifford Severn) reuniting with his Dad and the villains put in their place, but it all came together in rather haphazard fashion. I'll say this though, and I never really thought about if before, but Duncan Renaldo came up with a clever translation for Frog Millhouse's name in Spanish - Rana Casa Molino! Now there's a trivia question that will get you bonus points.
It continues from there when a young teenager schooled in London hooks up with the boys to join his father, not knowing that the San Quentin he's looking for is a state penitentiary and not a ranch. June Storey's character is on the run from one wedding ceremony and eloping to another with Smith Bellew, who doesn't even say 'Hi' to her when she arrives with Gene later on!! See what I mean?
Now don't get me wrong, if you like Gene's pictures this one's as entertaining as any of them, offering a whole host of musical numbers and a couple of cute young ladies (June Storey and Mary Lee) to complement the action, but at times it almost feels like an Abbott and Costello flick with all the zany stuff going on.
Somehow the Gaucho Serenade of the title is shoe-horned into the story when the whole gang finds themselves at a Mexican cantina after getting a flat tire, and the only way Gene can come up with the dough to have it fixed is to win a talent show. But the grand prize is the equivalent of twenty five dollars in groceries, so they have to rely on Frog's second place showing - he wins a used tire!! so they can replace the flat!!
Well it goes on like this to an eventual satisfactory conclusion with youngster Ronnie Willoughby (Clifford Severn) reuniting with his Dad and the villains put in their place, but it all came together in rather haphazard fashion. I'll say this though, and I never really thought about if before, but Duncan Renaldo came up with a clever translation for Frog Millhouse's name in Spanish - Rana Casa Molino! Now there's a trivia question that will get you bonus points.
G*d Have Mercy On Their Souls
boblipton19 August 2023
The big packing company starts to squeeze the small ranchers in the valley. They start legal action, including interviewing Lester Matthews, whom the company framed into prison. He'll be happy to testify. To stop him, the bad guys at the packing company send a telegram to his son, Clifford Severn, who's a student at an Eton College knock-off, to come to his father. They plan to meet him at the boat and hold him as a threat to Matthews. However, Severn decides that Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette are the guys meant to take him to his father at Rancho San Quentin. Autry and Burnette are broke rodeo performers whose manager has skipped, so they start back west with about four bucks in their pocket and a touring car they might have sold for train tickets. Along the way they meet June Storey and her sister, Mary Lee; Miss Storey has run out on her wedding, stealing the groom's car.
The script that Betty Burbridge and Bradford Ropes wrote for this may be the worst one that ever got past the editorial office at Republic Pictures. Misses Storey & Lee tell each other exactly what they have done together, and what they are both going to do. Add in the fact that young Severn does a bad Freddie Bartholomew imitation, but without Bartholomew's coarseness of manner or skill at physical slapstick, and you have something that I would have walked out of the theater on when I was six years old to walk home the four miles from the theater in heavy traffic.
Director Frank MacDonald tries to compensate by turning it into a comedy, which is theoretically a good idea. Still, the bad writings, dumb characters and poor choice of a child actor put me in such a bad mood that I could not take any pleasure in what was, I suppose, a typically decent set of songs, nor what might have been an exciting finale. Instead I wished they simply got on with it and shot everyone involved in this mess.
Other performers caught in this mishegoss include Duncan Renaldo, Smith Ballew, and Jose Eslava's Orchestra.
The script that Betty Burbridge and Bradford Ropes wrote for this may be the worst one that ever got past the editorial office at Republic Pictures. Misses Storey & Lee tell each other exactly what they have done together, and what they are both going to do. Add in the fact that young Severn does a bad Freddie Bartholomew imitation, but without Bartholomew's coarseness of manner or skill at physical slapstick, and you have something that I would have walked out of the theater on when I was six years old to walk home the four miles from the theater in heavy traffic.
Director Frank MacDonald tries to compensate by turning it into a comedy, which is theoretically a good idea. Still, the bad writings, dumb characters and poor choice of a child actor put me in such a bad mood that I could not take any pleasure in what was, I suppose, a typically decent set of songs, nor what might have been an exciting finale. Instead I wished they simply got on with it and shot everyone involved in this mess.
Other performers caught in this mishegoss include Duncan Renaldo, Smith Ballew, and Jose Eslava's Orchestra.
Great Autry Outing!
bozey4531 January 2008
What a fine Autry outing, just what the country needed trying to come out of the depression in 1940 right prior to WWII. Mary Lee, a very underrated singer from the era was only about 16 in this film and what a fine voice, as another user said a western Judy Garland. The young boy, played by Clifford Severn sort of reminded me of Freddie Bartholemew in his acting style. June Storey fine as usual in these B westerns; Duncan Renaldo later the Cisco Kid played Guacho Don Jose. Smiley Burnette, well what can we say?; the guy was fantastic. The on location shooting was wonderful, maybe Big Bear Lake area of California. The songs were fine in this film and was one of Autry's finest endeavours; not seen as often some others and deserves more airplay. The restored print aired on Encore Westerns is perfect.
This 'Autry' is a fine one!
corporalko31 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Good story, out of the ordinary for Gene and Frog, where they're driving home from New York City (a rodeo appearance there in Madison Square Garden), and by sheer chance wind up picking up two sisters who are fleeing the wedding the older doesn't want to go to (as the bride), and a young boy who thinks he's visiting his father's "Rancho San Quentin." Of course, his dad is actually in the prison of that name.
The plot isn't "hard to understand" nor will it have you "scratching your head," as other reviewers who love to denigrate Gene Autry's movies have said. And watch a climactic scene where Gene is chasing a speeding train on Champion. Aboard, the bad guys are trying to kidnap the young boy. Autry makes his own transfer from Champ's back to the train, climbing up a ladder attached to the side of a freight car. And it's obvious that it's really Gene; not a case of "Autry CLAIMED to have made the transfer," as another negative reviewer once wrote.
All in all, a darn good flick, with comedy, action, and plenty of good songs by Gene and others. I highly recommend it.
The plot isn't "hard to understand" nor will it have you "scratching your head," as other reviewers who love to denigrate Gene Autry's movies have said. And watch a climactic scene where Gene is chasing a speeding train on Champion. Aboard, the bad guys are trying to kidnap the young boy. Autry makes his own transfer from Champ's back to the train, climbing up a ladder attached to the side of a freight car. And it's obvious that it's really Gene; not a case of "Autry CLAIMED to have made the transfer," as another negative reviewer once wrote.
All in all, a darn good flick, with comedy, action, and plenty of good songs by Gene and others. I highly recommend it.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
