Cover Cavalcade

  JANUARY IS SINGING COWBOYS MONTH!!

Here's a Gene Autry cover from 1955.

The Ghost Mine

 

cover art by Till Goodman

Four Color #47 (July 1944--writer and artist unknown) keeps Gene Autry busy right from the first page, when he runs across a stagecoach that was robbed of the gold shipment it was carrying.

In fact, the poor driver is robbed every single time the stage is carrying gold, even though those shipments are supposed to be a secret. Someone has inside information.

It's a situation destined to activate Gene's Chronic Hero Syndrome and he's soon hanging out at a local saloon in Goldtown, looking for information. He doesn't discover anything definite about the robberies, but he does meet a big guy named Bull Riggs, who is good with a whip. Gene and Bull spend a few panels showing off their respective skill.

This, of course, foreshadows a later event in the story, but leaves Gene no closer to finding the bad guys. Soon after, though, a young lady named Milly Nolan arrives in town. She has her father's will, which leaves her the local gold mine. But a guy named Bill Drake claims Milly's dad sold HIM the mine before he died.

That mine, by the way, had seemed to be worthless, but Bill claims to have struck a new vein, making it profitable. 

Both Gene and Milly think Bill is lying and forged the new deed. They plan to get a handwriting expert to prove this.

Of course, the deed IS forged. Bill's scheme is to steal gold from the stage, melt it down and claim he's digging it out of the mine. But he also realizes that the jig will be up as soon as an expert examines the forged signatures on the deed. It's time to load up the gold and leave town.

To gain time, he and his minions (which includes whip-expert Bull) kidnap Milly. Bill doesn't want to commit a murder if he doesn't have to, so he locks her in a room inside the mine. When Gene investigates, he's captured as well and locked in another room. 

Gene's tied up, but the bad guys didn't bother tying up Milly. She crawls through a ventilation shaft to free Gene, who then prys open the locked door with a barrell stave. He takes Milly back to town, borrows a pistol and chases the bad guys. During the chase, Bull drops his whip. Gene recovers it and uses it to catch the villains. 

"The Ghost Mine" is a good story. It's well-constructed--for instance, the ventilator shaft Milly uses to free Gene was mentioned previously, preventing it from being a deus ex machina. I suppose the foreshadowing with the whip contest in the bar was a little heavy-handed, but it was a neat scene nonetheless.

And I really like the art. The unknown artist effectively uses establishing shots to set up scenes and shifts his "camera" about in interesting ways. The night time scenes, especially when Molly is being kidnapped, are nicely atmospheric. "The Ghost Mine" is a worthy addition to Gene Autry's canon of adventures.

You can read this issue online HERE.

Next week, we'll visit with Spider Man and decide whether the Spider Mobile was awesome or just plain dumb.

Mr. Haney is sure handy with that whip!

One of the reasons the B-movie cowboy heroes were so popular was that they were so gosh-darn likable. We can't help but think of Hopalong, Roy, Gene and Tex as friends. And in a very important sense, they were our friends.

But another reason was that their movies were nearly always excellent examples of good basic storytelling. The B-movie Western had well-constructed plots, interesting situations, superbly choreographed action scenes and excellent use of location photography. Even if you were to set aside the appeal of the heroes, we can watch one of these films and simply enjoy a well-told story.

For instance, the 1951 Gene Autry oater titled Silver Canyon gives us a really nifty tale. It's set right at the beginning of the Civil War. A Confederate guerilla band led by Wade McQuarrie (who is clearly modeled after William Quantrill) is pillaging and raiding the area around Gateway, a U.S. Army post and mining town. Gene and his sidekick Cougar Claggett want to join the Army, but an officer talks Gene into tracking down McQuarrie.

What follows is a fine story in which Gene uses his tracking skills and deductive reasoning while searching for McQuarrie's trail. In the meantime, McQuarrie's men attack and steal a box of silver from an Army wagon train, then later steal some horses from a Pony Express station.

It unfolds that Walt Middler, the son of Gateway's military commander, is working with McQuarrie--not out of greed or thuggery, but because he sincerely supports the Confederate cause. Walt's sister Dell knows this, but can't bring herself to turn him in.

All this builds up to a satisfying conclusion  when McQuarrie and his men--dressed in Union uniforms--boldly ride into Gateway with the intention of looting the town. But Gene is hot on their trail with an idea of how to trick them into leaving town. Also, Walt witnesses McQuarrie's ruthlessness and begins to wonder if he's chosen the right side.

It's an entertaining movie from start to finish, made all the better by a fine supporting cast. Gail Davis (who would play Annie Oakley a few years later in an Autry-produced TV series) plays Dell Middler as capable and occasionally fiery, lifting her above a mere damsel-in-distress status. McQuarrie is played with a calm ruthlessness by Jim Davis. Dell's brother Walt is played by Bob Steele, who had his own career as a B-movie hero during the 1930s & 40s.

It's a great movie because we like and admire Gene Autry and I'm not underestimating this. But it's also a great movie simply because it spins a really good yarn.

By the way, Pat Buttram was Gene's sidekick in many of his films and on Gene's TV and radio shows. He does a fine job in the sidekick department, providing sincerely funny moments while still remaining competent enough to provide Gene with actual help when needed. The scene I'm including below, in which Gene prevents a man from being lynched for supposedly helping McQuarrie, is a good example of this. Pat's character jumps right in to the fight and more than holds his own. In fact, his use of the whip right at the beginning of the fight is nothing less than epic.

Buttram went on to play the persistent salesman Mr. Haney on Green Acres in the 1960s and was an important element in what made that show so darn funny. In fact, Silver Canyon gives us two connections to absurdist 1960s sitcoms. Bob Steele was a member of F Troop (and was an important element in what made that show so funny).

Pat Buttram was a great comedic actor, but by golly you wouldn't want to go up against him in a fist fight. If he'd brought that whip along to Hooterville, he probably could have convinced Mr. Douglas to buy a lot more of his stuff.