Watch In Old Santa Fe For Free

I love this movie so much

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Gangster Chandler and his accomplice Tracy arrive at a dude ranch. Cowboy Kentucky arrives at the same time. When Tracy double-crosses his boss and has the stage robbed, Kentucky finds the outlaws and brings them in. Tracy frames him for the murder of the driver but his pal Cactus gets him out of jail. He returns just as Chandler shoots Tracy and Kentucky finds himself arrested for another murder.I suppose if you are a fan of this genre you will like the movie.I'm not such a fan.It's OK.

Man snubbing Kentucky who was trying to sell him western gear. "I don't wish to look like a fool." "My mistake, my mistake, but I don't think the clothes would make any difference." I wonder how many horses were lamed filming that. Just horrible. Nobody in his or her right mind would put a horse through the race. But that was some fantastic riding. The plot shows what a trip wire could do to a horse and yet they surely used trip wires for the falls. I got an extra appreciation for the danger of the runaway stage stunt when I learned of a re-creation trail ride a few years ago where the team of a wagon was spooked and one of the horses died after getting entangled backwards in the harness.Odd that someone named Kentucky didn't even try for a KY accent. :) I went to a Ken Maynard film festival in Columbus, IN, put on by a family member. I'd never heard of him before that. We saw some of his silent movies. It's interesting that a boy from Vevay, IN, could perform in carnivals and circuses then go west and become a trick rider with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, a circus rider with Ringling Brothers, and have a career in Hollywood. He also managed to squeeze in a stint with the army in WWI, apparently escaping being crippled or traumatized.It was an exciting time for an adventurous soul. Cole Porter from Peru, IN, born only four years earlier than Ken, went the opposite direction and took NYC by storm. (He, however, wasn't as lucky with his horse, poor guy.) The mingling of the sophistication of the cities with the still fairly primitive conditions of the West and Great Plains made for excellent contrasts in early westerns. It gave the audience the feeling that they could go there and have amazing things happen to them, too. It was part fantasy and part advertisement.

Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette made an auspicious debut in the Ken Maynard vehicle, "In Old Santa Fe" (1934). Although their footage is limited to a couple of musical numbers, they still make quite an impression. Furthermore, the movie is almost in the "A" class. Filled with great action, plus humor, plus excellent acting (particularly from Ken Maynard, Gabby Hayes, Evalyn Knapp, H.B. Warner, Kenneth Thomson and Wheeler Oakman), stylish direction by David Howard, a fast-paced script, class-"A" songs and superb production values, "In Old Santa Fe" is a must-have DVD, especially for fans of Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Gabby Hayes (in full flight here), Ken Maynard (who comes across with far more personality than usual), and even Bob Nolan (who dubs Maynard's comic song, "That's What I Like About My Dog").

The reissue print I saw lists Gene Autry as the star, but the truth is he's only in one scene singing a song at a party. The real star of the film is Ken Maynard, one of the first singing cowboys in one of his last appearances in "musical" western. The Plot has to do with Ken helping out the owner of a dude ranch that is wanted by a gangster. First the gangster fixes a horse race and then he resorts to murder and robbery, framing Maynard in the hope of getting him out of the way. Good action packed film is slowed down by too many songs. The songs aren't bad but it takes up too much room with the result being that the first 40 minutes is rather leisurely while the final 15 or 20 minutes is a race to the wire. I wish things had been more spread out, especially since the film kind of slows to a crawl after the horse race. Still its worth a look, preferably as part of a double feature evening.