Search - Rim of the Canyon on DVD

One of Gene's very best

Wayne Engle | Madison, IN United States | 09/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This film from 1949, in the twilight of the B-western era, was one of Gene Autry's finest and also I believe one of the best budget westerns ever made.
Autry plays a double role, of himself in real time, and his own father in flashbacks to 20 years before. Steve Autry, a sheriff, had captured and sent up three bank robbers. Two decades later, his son Gene runs into two of the three, plus a third convict, escapees from prison who are intent on finding and reclaiming the loot they stole. In the process, they also steal Gene's horse Champion. The crooks; Autry; a young woman who is secretly in love with him, and two fascinating old men, one of whom has been thought dead for many years, wind up in a ghost town where the action-filled denouement takes place.
The screenplay for this movie is superb. One can tell that Gene Autry knows he has a superior vehicle to work with, and gives it a fine performance (who said he couldn't act?) Nan Leslie as the smitten young teacher manages to morph from a plain-Jane schoolmarm type to a beautiful goddess, almost as if by magic. Sorry, no spoilers; you'll have to see the movie to find out how.
The three baddies are suitably villainous, especially Walter Sande, and Autry has a couple of excellent fight scenes with Jock Mahoney, later to become TV's "Range Rider." Autry shows how he could do a fine job with his own stunts, when allowed to by the studio bigwigs who were forever afraid of an injured star and costly delays in filming.
A special mention is due the handsome and intelligent Champion, who gives a fine performance as an outraged stallion stolen but determined to escape and return to his owner Gene.
If you looked in the dictionary under "B-Western," it would be highly appropriate if the definition said, "Rim of the Canyon."
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