What I watched: The thirteenth episode of The Gene Autry Show, a kid-friendly Western starring the titular singing cowboy and his sidekick Pat Buttram. “The Lost Chance” was directed by Frank McDonald and written by Paul Gangelin, with guest stars Don Pietro, Kenne Duncan, and Zon Murray. The episode originally aired at 7:30 PM on Sunday, October 15, 1950 on CBS, and is available on Shout Factory TV.
What happened: We open with a Mexican kid leading his donkey around, calling him “amigo” and otherwise being stereotypical. He notices a really sexy horse nearby, which is naturally Champ, with Gene looking on. The kid hops on the horse, but it won’t go. Gene finally interrupts him, and the kid introduces him as Pepito Garcia (Pietro). Pepito says that he normally hangs around in Arizona, but came to this area, known as Rock Bottom to look for gold. Pat arrives to do some coyote noises.
The action kicks off with a chase passing our trio by. Pat and Gene join in the chase, shooting at a bunch of outlaws who are in turn shooting at a guy named Art Daly, the president of the Cattleman’s Association. Daly gets shot, and the outlaws get away. The culprits are apparently the Hanlon Gang, a local group of toughs known for going after big scores led by Bo Hanlon (Murray). Gene suspects that they had other motives for targeting Art, however.
In town, the sheriff deputizes everyone to go after the gang. Nice to know the rule of law is being followed. We learn that Gene is the secretary of the Cattleman’s Association, and Del Andrews (Duncan) is the treasurer. Very important political post, you see. A local guy starts harassing Pepito and Amigo, and Gene intervenes to punch him out. Pepito says he knows the location of the legendary Lost Chance gold strike, which only one man has ever found. Pepito heard it from his father Pedro. Of course, as the most extraneous character, Mr. Andrews is the villain, and we soon see him making a deal with Hanlon. He ordered the hit, and only wants the records of he Association.
Gene is singing about dating a Mexican woman. Pepito heads out with Amigo, looking for the gold mine, but gets confused by the reference to “a face in the sky.” Maybe the real treasure was God? When Gene and Pa go out looking for him, they come across a bank robbery, and foil it with some fast shooting. Gene catches Hanlon in the hand and chases him down. Hanlon gets away but Gene recovers his loot, including the Association records.
Pepito is still looking, and stumbles across Andrews and Hanlon meeting. They discover him, but realize they can’t kill him without alerting Gene. Andrews asks Pepito to find them the Lost Chance strike, threatening with shooting Amigo unless he complies. Gene and Pat even come across Andrews and Pepito, who say they’re looking for the lost burro. Gene is suspicious after the conversation, and doubles back to follow them.
Pepito finally sees the “face in the sky”, a nearby cliff face. In town, Gene has reviewed the records and found that the accounts are $40, 000 short. The bad guys start digging, and find a box, but all that’s in it is a letter calling them fools. One of the goons warns them that Autry is coming. They set an ambush, and start shooting at a wagon driven by Pepito. Gene springs to the rescue, and tells Pepito the lesson of the story: “Don’t follow foolish ideas, and try to get something for nothing.” But he is going to get the reward cash, which will be used to send him to school. Pat even found Amigo, and “Junior.” At least the burros can have sex on TV.
What I thought: This is the second episode of The Gene Autry Show we’ve seen that pairs Gene with a kid, after “The Star Toter..” It’s a smart idea: Gene’s persona, at least at this point in his career, was more grown-up than a lot of more conventional two-fisted Western heroes, but the show was still aimed primarily at a family audience. If The Lone Ranger was who you wanted to be, than Gene Autry was who you wanted to be your dad: kind, understanding, but still able to kick some ass. Having him act as a surrogate father figure allowed kids to imagine themselves in this fantasy.
However, in this case the characterization of the actual kid is where the whole idea falls apart. To put it bluntly, Pepito is annoying, a one-note character with some of the least convnicning kid acting you’ll see. The story also basically fixates on his Mexican-ness to the point where it’s basically his only personality trait, inflecting even his love of his burro Amigo. Even if kids wanted Gene Autry as their dad, it’s hard to imagine them wanting to be Pepito.
The episode as a whole has an unusually busy plot. We have an outlaw gang, a cattleman who’s secretly working with them, a murder, and a mythical gold mine. We’re just lucky Gene didn’t try to squeeze a romance in there. Ultimately, it makes for an episode that’s a bit of a muddle. If it weren’t for the seeming mandate for every one of these Western series’ scripts to include a bad guy in disguise, it probably wouldn’t have been better to just cut out the Cattlemen’s Association plot altogether.
As I write this I realize that it might sound silly for me to be doing story-doctoring on a kid’s show from 70 years ago. I sometimes worry that I’m being overly negative about these shows that I have for some reason committed myself to watching, scaring away whatever readership exists for writing about The Gene Autry Show. Well, so be it: I’ve always had trouble following the commonly-dispensed advice to “turn your brain off”, even when dealing with kid’s media.
To be sure, there are pleasures to be had here: Autry’s charisma and singing, and some decently-choreographed horse riding and fistfights. But after initially hoping that The Gene Autry Show would be a reprieve from the Lone Ranger formula, I’m frustrated to see a lot of the same plot tics in it and other Western series. I’m hoping that these shows still have some kind of surprise waiting for me, or at least something worth writing about.
Coming up next: It’s another helping of Jerry & Dean on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
The Eternal Couch Potato 