Robin Hood of Texas
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Lesley Selander
Gene Autry
Champion Jr.
Lynne Roberts
Sterling Holloway
Adele Mara
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As they are struggling to pay the rent at Mrs. O'Brien's boardinghouse in Dalfort, Texas, singer Gene Autry sends one of his band members to sell their musical instruments. Instead, the musician returns with a twenty dollar advance from a man who asks them to sing outside a saddle shop precisely at twelve noon. When the boys go to the shop and begin singing outside, however, the owner comes out and demands that they immediately stop and Gene realizes that they have been tricked into creating a diversion for a group of thieves who are robbing the Cattlemen's Trust and Savings Bank across the street. Although Gene and the boys chase the robbers, they escape. Sheriff Lacey mistakes Gene's men for the robbers and arrests them. The thieves, meanwhile, pass $100,000 in loot to an accomplice named Julie Reeves. At the police station, one of the boys recognizes a photograph of a suspect in the hold-up, who has been found dead, as the man who gave them the money. Although the saddle shop owner, Mr. Hamby, identifies the boys as the ones who provided the distraction in the robbery, Gene maintains their innocence. Later, Cap. Danforth gives one of the band members a letter from his sister, Virginia, explaining that their uncle has died and left them a cattle ranch in the town of Serenity. The band visits the ranch, but because there are no horses, Gene suggests they turn it into a dude ranch for weary urbanites, and "Serenity Rest Ranch" opens for business. Among the first guests is Sheriff Lacey whose investigation of the robbery is still going on. When Julie brings the suitcase full of money to the robbers' hideout, leader Duke Mantel pulls his gun on his cohorts and leaves with the case. After seeing an advertisement in the newspaper for the dude ranch, he decides to go there, but is followed by his angry partners, Ace Foley and Nick Castillo. That evening, after Duke has stuffed the money inside a padded chair in his room, Ace and Nick find him and demand the money. When Duke refuses to tell them where it is, Ace and Nick shoot and kill him. Pretending to be a man named Prescott, Jim Preston, Julie's beau and partner-in-crime, takes rooms at the ranch with Julie so they can search for the money. Convinced that the money is hidden somewhere inside the room, Ace and Nick, set fire to the barn, which is adjacent to the ranch house, so that everyone will be forced to evacuate and they will be able to search the room without being interrupted. The fire is put out before Ace and Nick can find the money, however, so they ask Julie to cozy up to Gene, which makes Virginia, who is in love with the singer, jealous. Later, Gene guesses that the money is still hidden somewhere inside the room. When Sheriff Lacey catches Julie and Jim searching it, Jim becomes desperate and takes Gene and some of the guests hostage, locking them in a shed. Gene uses the spur on his boot to break out, and returns to the ranch house. Inside, a band member named Droopy tells Ace and Nick that he replaced the chair in Jim's room with one from the adjoining room because it had a broken leg. Ace and Nick rip open Jim's chair, disocver the money and escape in a wagon. Although shot in the arm while attempting to stop them, Gene jumps aboard the wagon and wrestles the gun away from Nick. The gangsters are then apprehended and sent to jail.
Director
Lesley Selander
Cast
Gene Autry
Champion Jr.
Lynne Roberts
Sterling Holloway
Adele Mara
James Cardwell
John Kellogg
Ray Walker
Michael Branden
Paul Bryar
James Flavin
Dorothy Vaughn
Stanley Andrews
Alan Bridge
Cass County Boys
Hank Patterson
Edmund Cobb
Bill Bailey
Lester Dorr
Irene Mack
Opal Taylor
Eva Novak
Norma Brown
Frank Marvin
Billy Wilkerson
Crew
John Alton
Gene Autry
William Bradford
John K. Butler
Ray Charles
Sergio De Karlo
Joe Dill
Harry Keller
Lee Lukather
Howard Lydecker
Theodore Lydecker
Bob Mark
John Mccarthy Jr.
Adele Palmer
Sidney Picker
Carson J. Robison
Armand Schaefer
Morton Scott
Nathan Scott
Earle Snell
Fred Stahl
Charles Thompson
Paul Youngblood
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Variety lists the release date for this film as September 5, 1947, while other contemporary sources list the date as either July 15, 1947 or September 9, 1947. After completing this film, Gene Autry became president and executive producer of his own company, Gene Autry Productions, and signed a releasing deal with Columbia. According to his autobiography, Autry left Republic before the film's release. Although William Bradford is listed onscreen as director of photography, John Alton is listed in Hollywood Reporter production charts in that capacity. Modern sources include the following actors in the cast: Duke Green, Ken Terrell and Joe Yrigoyen.
