"The Singing Vagabond" is one of Gene Autry's earliest films...and it shows it. What I mean by this is that the studio had many of the story elements in this film you'd expect in his later films...but the story doesn't quite work. Gene Autry is called 'Tex' (while he's Gene in almost every other film) and his personality seems very different...quieter, less friendly and a bit aloof. See this film and his later ones....you'll likely see what I mean.
The story begins with a minstrel number that will no doubt shock and offend many. Soon after, a young lady (Ann Rutherford) running away from her guardian and joining a traveling show out west in 1860. When she meets the somewhat dashing Captain 'Tex' Autry, she immediately hates him...because, well, that occurs in nearly all his films where the leading lady hates him but learns to adore him through the course of the story.
As for the rest of the story, Captain Autry is said to be a highly trusted and valuable soldier...which is what makes the rest of the story so confusing. A scumbag is stealing horses and insists Captain Autry is doing this. And, with no real hard evidence, the court declares Autry guilty and sentences him to death. What's next? See the film...or not.
The look of this film as well as Autry and Smiley Burnette make me wonder if this film was actually filmed earlier and then was released AFTER a few of his other films debuted. It just doesn't seem like they got the characters or the formula just right and everyone and everything just seems out of place. In particular, Autry is stiff and his character
not altogether likable. Overall, not bad...but not quite right.
