Gene Autry's horse "Champion" (<a href=">Champion) is stolen by escaped convicts Jake Fargon (<a href=">Walter Sande), Pete Reagon (<a href=">Jock Mahoney) and Charlie Lewis (<a href=">Francis McDonald). Twenty years earlier Fargo and Lewis had been captured by City Marshal Steve Autry (<a href=">Gene Autry)and sent to prison after the theft of $30,000 from "Big Tim" Hanlon (<a href=">Thurston Hall), a bonanza king. Gene (<a href=">Gene Autry)traces the convicts to the ghost town in which the loot had been hidden way, where he also finds Hanlon and school teacher Ruth Lambert (<a href=">Nan Leslie). Loco John (<a href=">Clem Bevans)warns Gene the killers are around. The convicts pursue Gene and his friends through the spooky buildings. Gene takes up where his dad left off, going after the baddies who took $30,000, returning twenty years later to the ghost town where they left the loot. I guess I would consider this a ghost themed Western, even if the title didn't use the words 'ghost' or 'haunted' to describe the picture. I find this to be a neat little sub-genre of the Western movie experience, and find particular delight in these kinds of stories. The only thing is, this wasn't much of a ghost story, as the 'ghost' turned out to be a character who faked his own death some twenty years earlier. On the face of it, I'm not buying that premise but what the heck, it's a Gene Autry picture.<br/><br/>You know, if you keep an eye on Gene in the early going, it looked like he really might have hurt himself when his stagecoach crashed during the Frontier Days Celebration race. He grabs his right thigh as if in pain, and actually grimaces as the scene transitions to the next part of the story. Gene uses a makeshift cane for the ensuing scenes, so I'm curious now whether the story was written that way, or around the fact that he might have been slightly injured.<br/><br/>Nan Leslie appeared in quite a few B Westerns but I have to say, she never looked more glamorous than she did here once she shed the bookworm image used when Gene first found her at The Bonanza. The story goes on to reveal how she became aware of Gene back in Canyon Junction and fell in love with him from afar, knowing that he had a thing going with saloon gal Lily Shannon. I was curious about a phrase Lily used when she showed Gene her new dress - "Isn't it pash"? I had to look that up - a slang expression for passionate, which I take would be the way she felt about Gene, even while Alan Hale was making his move on her. Interestingly, she didn't show up in the story again.<br/><br/>So what we have here is a story about a trio of outlaws out to recover some stolen loot after serving a twenty year hitch for a stagecoach robbery. Well, two of them anyway, the third outlaw was shot and replaced by Jock Mahoney, appearing as he did in these early B Westerns as O'Mahoney. It's too bad he didn't get to show off his riding skills here, he was one of the best in my book. But this was Gene's picture.<br/><br/>Now I've got to say, I was at a loss for words at the finale when Champion got in on the action and stomped one of the baddies to death. It was done off screen, but it still resonated with this viewer. You could say that villain Jake Fargo (Walter Sande) had it coming to him, but gee, that was tough way to go. As far as movie horses go, I'd say he was one up on Trigger. Rim Of The Canyon finds Gene Autry without a sidekick, usually a necessary character in the B western. But the film does make up for the lack of a Smiley Burnette or a Pat Buttram in it with a somewhat unusual story about a ghost town and a ghost.<br/><br/>Gene Autry comes to town to drive in a stagecoach race and learns of the escape of three convicts from prison, Walter Sande, Jock Mahoney, and Francis McDonald. Sande is someone that Gene's father, Marshal Steve Autry sent to prison for a $30,000.00 robbery from which the loot was never recovered. In a flashback sequence where Gene plays his father we see how the capture was made.<br/><br/>Getting thrown from the stagecoach and seeking shelter and help, Gene arrives in a ghost town where the local school marm has taken to spending some time. Nan Leslie is there fascinated by the ghost of a mining tycoon who haunts the place. She and Gene will need all the help they can get from this world and the next when the three escaped convicts arrive looking for the loot which by coincidence Sande stashed there.<br/><br/>With this glimpse into the supernatural, Rim Of The Canyon is a cut or two above the average B western. Gene was making them at this point for Columbia having left the cowboy stable of Republic and Herbert J. Yates. The stories and the treatment reflect that, there are some brutal scenes in Rim Of The Canyon that Yates would never have allowed his cowboy heroes to participate in.<br/><br/>Rounding out the cast in Rim Of The Canyon are Alan Hale, Jr. as Gene's rival in the stagecoach race, Thurston Hall as a very avuncular ghost who hosts Gene and Nan, and Clem Bevans playing his usual old codger prospector.<br/><br/>Gene wrote and sang the two songs from this film, the title song and one of his most enduring hits, You're The Only Star In My Blue Heaven.<br/><br/>A good western for Mr. Autry even if he didn't have a sidekick.
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363 weeks ago