Cow Town begins with a prologue all about the joys of barbed wire. Whatever. Following this, there is a scene with a lot of townspeople and I noticed that nearly everyone looked old! I can only assume that the producers deliberately used a lot of older actors in order to make the aging Gene Autry look younger, as his best days in Hollywood were a decade ago. Is this one worth seeing or is it yet another tired late career Autry westerns?
The story begins with Gene taking a couple rustlers to the sheriff. On the way, a VERY angry and incredibly stereotypical woman draws a gun on Gene and tries to stop him. I say incredibly stereotypical because in so many of his and Roy Rogers' films women are inexplicably angry and just plain nasty...only to be tamed by the hero...a cliche I could REALLY do without! Soon she's organized a jail break for the two accused rustlers! And, they shoot their way to freedom! Is this woman the ultimate villain or just a real dumb idiot? Tune in to find out for yourself.
This film is a great example of a film where characters behave inconsistently...and foolishly. To me, this is just bad writing...even for a B-western. When you see Duke and his sister, you never have any idea WHAT they are going to say and do...and I assume that the actors felt the same way! It's a huge problem with the story and makes this one of Autry's weakest outings.
While the plot really let me down, one thing I do need to say in praise of the film is the gorgeous use of the scenery in Lone Pine, California. While hundreds of westerns were filmed here, I cannot recall a black & white movie that made the mountains there look so good. Cheers to the cinematographer, William Bradford.
