Melody Trail
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Joseph Kane
Gene Autry
Ann Rutherford
Smiley Burnette
Wade Boteler
Champion
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Gene Autry, radio and phonograph star, and his friend, comedian Frog Millhouse, attend a rodeo where Gene falls for a spectator, Millicent Thomas. Millicent, who is being harassed by her father's former ranch hand, Matt Kirby, is delighted when Gene sings for the crowd, then beats Matt in a bucking bronco competition. That night, however, as Gene dreams of Millicent, his $1,000 in rodeo winnings are stolen by the gypsy Frantz, the husband of Perdita, a fortune-teller. The next day, while Millicent goes into town with her father, rancher Timothy Thomas, her dog, Souvenir, a compulsive thief, takes a detour into the gypsy camp and steals a basket containing Frantz and Perdita's baby daughter Rica. Millicent later discovers the infant and takes her in, not knowing who her parents are, and Frog and Gene, who end up going to work as cooks on the Thomas ranch, assume the baby to be hers. Gene, using the moniker "Arizona," captures two wild stallions to impress Millicent and the cowgirls she has hired to replace Matt and his men, who have defected. However, after Souvenir steals Gene's cookbook, his efforts in the kitchen are far less successful, and the meal that he and Frog prepare for the cowgirls makes them all ill. In the meantime, Matt plots to rustle the Thomas' cattle, and while the cowgirls bathe in a pond, he steals their clothes in order to prevent them from protecting the herd. Frantz, searching for Baby Rica, recovers her from Millicent, but Gene pursues him, believing him to be a kidnapper. Gene captures and ties up Frantz, and Frantz returns the money he earlier stole from Gene, after explaining that Rica is his daughter. Gene then sees Matt and his men stealing the cattle and apprehends all eight of them, including Matt, single-handedly. After Gene saves the ranch, he and Millicent, and Frog and Cuddles, one of the cowgirls, are wed in a large, musical ceremony along with the other cowboys and girls, but the wedding is interrupted by the realization that Souvenir has stolen all their wedding rings.
Director
Joseph Kane
Cast
Gene Autry
Ann Rutherford
Smiley Burnette
Wade Boteler
Champion
Buck
Willy Castello
Al Bridge
Fern Emmett
Marie Quillan
Gertrude Messinger
Tracy Layne
Abe Lefton (world Famous Rodeo Announcer)
Lord A. Shah
George De Normand
Marion Dowling
Ione Reed
Jane Barnes
Crew
Gene Autry
Bill Bradford
Betty Burbridge
Smiley Burnette
Roy Granville
Terry Kellum
Nat Levine
Joseph H. Lewis
Sherman Lowe
Sherman Lowe
Ernest Miller
Lester Orlebeck
Armand Schaefer
George Sherman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Buck, a St. Bernard dog, appeared earlier in 1935 in The Call of the Wild (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.0568).
