Ridin' on a Rainbow

Plot

Gene Autry gets help from teenage singer Mary Lee and fetching tap dancer Carol Adams in this tuneful Republic songfest restored in 2001 by Gene Autry Entertainment. Autry and sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette can only watch as gangsters Ralf Harolde and Anthony Warde rob the local bank. The trail leads to Ferris Taylor's riverboat where Gene goes undercover as a country & western singer. On the inside, so to speak, our heroic troubadour quickly learns that the father (Byron Foulger) of girl singer Mary Lee had a hand in the robbery but how will he be able to recover the loot and punish the guilty without causing the naive little Mary undue trauma? When not chasing modern-day gangsters, Autry, Mary Lee, Carol Davis and Smiley Burnette perform no less than eight lively music numbers including the title song and the Academy Award nominated "Be Honest With Me". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Review

A lovely brunette Republic contract player, Carol Adams gives Ann Miller a run for her money in two lively tap numbers in this melodious music western, which also benefits from good performances by the underestimated Byron Foulger, as a larcenous riverboat clown, and tough guy actors Ralf Harolde and Anthony Warde. If all four seem slightly anachronistic in what at least on the surface appear to be a western, well, that is the charm of this kind of hayseed movie fare, a genre that should always be viewed in a certain lighthearted and nostalgic frame of mind. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Cast

• Gene Autry - Gene
• Smiley Burnette - Frog
• Mary Lee - Patsy
• Carol Adams - Sally
• Ferris Taylor - Capt. Bartlett

Georgia Caine - Maria Bartlett; Byron Foulger - Matt Evans; Ralf Harolde - Binke; Jimmy Conlin - Frisco; Guy Usher - Sheriff; Anthony Warde - Morrison; Forrest Taylor - Jeff Billings; Burr Caruth - Eben Carter; Edward Cassidy; Champion (The Horse); Ben Hall; Tom London; William V. Mong

Credit

Lew Landers - Director, Tony Martinelli - Editor, Gene Autry - Composer (Music Score), Fred Rose - Composer (Music Score), Raoul Kraushaar - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gene Autry - Songwriter, Don George - Songwriter, Teddy Hall - Songwriter, Mary Lee - Songwriter, Sol Meyer - Songwriter, Jean Herbert - Songwriter, William Nobles - Cinematographer, Harry Grey - Producer, Doris Malloy - Screenwriter, Bradford Ropes - Screenwriter

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