The only Gene Autry film where the leading lady, Barbara Britton, is equally billed above the title as the co-star, thereby knocking his horse Champion out of the honors, if one chooses to overlook the 1941 novelty from 20th Century-Fox that had Jane Withers and Gene Autry above the title in that order. This Autry entry has Larry Evans, whose gun had been used to kill rancher Ed Norton in a poker game, escaping a lynching party headed by ranchers Dave Randall and Bill Otis. Norton's friend Gene Autry, investigating on his own, discovers that Larry's gun had been put in the poker pot with the chips, after Larry had lost all of his money, and anyone could have used it when the lights went out. He finds Larry and his sister Mary Evans in a hideaway, and sends Mary back to town and hides Larry in the cabin of miner Jim Hedge. Finding out that Randall and Don Mason have tried to buy the Evans ranch... Gene Autry ends up on the wrong side of the law when he helps an accused killer escape the clutches of Sheriff Kramer and his posse. Believing young Larry Evans to be innocent of the death of Ed Norton, Autry does his best to keep him out of harm's way and the sheriff out of his hair. Autry suspects the other men present at the gambling table when Norton was shot, more than one of whom have taken a greedy interest in Larry Evan's family ranch. Discovered by Will Rogers in the late 1920's, Gene Autry is still one of the most famous singing cowboys. Beginning as a "yodeling cowboy" in Tulsa, Autry parlayed a blossoming music career into a film contract with Republic Pictures. After a long and successful career in radio and motion pictures, Gene started Flying A Pictures, Inc. and made the move to television in the early 1950s.
