Apache Country
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
George Archainbaud
Gene Autry
Champion
Carolina Cotton
Harry Lauter
Mary Scott
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When a rash of Indian raids plagues the Southwest territory, Gene Autry, chief scout for the Southwest Cavalry Command, is summoned to Washington, D.C. to meet with Commissioner Lathan of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Lathan orders Gene to resign his post so that he can conduct an undercover investigation of the raids. Outside Lathan's office, Bartlett, the commisioner's secretary is conspiring with Laura Rayburn, the daughter of Apache Springs Indian Agent Walter Rayburn, and her fiancé, Dave Kilrain, to sabotage Gene's mission. After ostensibly resigning his post to go into ranching, Gene, accompanied by his friend, Pat Buttram, travels to Junction City and is about to board the stage bound for Apache Springs when Laura, a passenger on the stage, feigns a fear of guns and begs the men to remove theirs. After Gene and Pat oblige Laura and hand their guns over to the stage driver, Carolina Cotton, the sharpshooting proprietor of a medicine show, also boards the stage. Along the trail, Kilrain and his road agents wait for Laura's signal to attack the stage, thinking that Gene and Pat have been disarmed. When the outlaws appear, Gene and Pat extract their pistols from the lunch boxes in which they were hidden and start firing, sending Kilrain and his gang scurrying for cover. When the stage reaches Apache Springs, Laura reports to her father and Kilrain. The three have been inciting the Indians by providing them with liquor and guns, and the resulting raids have kept the Cavalry occupied, thus allowing the railroad bandits free reign of the territory. Laura warns Kilrain that Carolina, a friend of the Indians performing in her show, may endanger their operation and should be eliminated. After Kilrain disrupts the medicine show that evening, Carolina informs Gene that Kilrain is the leader of the bandit underground that has been engineering the Indian raids. The next day, Gene, posing as a would-be land buyer, visits Rayburn, who is also the government land agent. When Rayburn sends Gene and Pat to look at property in the isolated Bear Valley, Gene, anticipating an ambush, covers their horses' hooves with canvas bags, thereby covering their tracks and making it impossible for Rayburn's men to follow them. Doubling back to town, Pat and Gene listen outside Kilrain's office as Kilrain confers with notorious outlaw Tom Ringo about a railroad robbery. Bursting into the office, Gene and Pat arrest Kilrain, but he is soon released for lack of evidence. The next day, Carolina joins the wagon train bound for Fort Ballard, and Gene hands her a coded message to deliver to the commandant there. Witnessing the exchange, Rayburn and Kilrain decide to attack the wagon train and destroy the message. Soon after Carolina departs, Gene receives a message from Lathan, warning him that Bartlett has divulged the code to Rayburn. Realizing that Carolina is in danger, Gene and Pat gallop after the wagon train, arriving just in time to join Carolina in fending off Kilrain's attack. After Carolina wounds both Kilrain and Rayburn, the bandit ring is smashed, and Gene, Pat and Carolina travel to Washington to be commended for their heroic efforts.
Director
George Archainbaud
Cast
Gene Autry
Champion
Carolina Cotton
Harry Lauter
Mary Scott
Sydney Mason
Francis X. Bushman
Cass County Boys
Tony Whitecloud's Jemez Indians
Pat Buttram
Gregg Barton
Tom London
Byron Foulger
Frank Matts
Mickey Simpson
Kitty Mchugh
Iron Eyes Cody
Edwin Parker
George Russell
Crew
Mischa Bakaleinikoff
William Bradford
Charles Clague
Carolina Cotton
Paul Donnelly
Norman S. Hall
Hy Heath
Russell Malmgren
Paul Mertz
Jack Pepper
Willard Robinson
Armand Schaefer
James Sweeney
Frank [a.] Tuttle
Hank Williams
Britt Wood
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
In the film, a group of Jemez Pueblo Apache Indians performs a war dance, an eagle dance and a buffalo dance while Gene Autry's character comments on the significance of the dancing.
