Round-Up Time In Texas

Round-Up Time in Texas (1937)

Runtime: 55 minutes

Directed by: Joseph Kane

Starring: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Maxine Doyle, LeRoy Mason, The Cabin Kids (yes, an actual credit)

From: Republic

I have been wrapped up in other things the past few days so I hadn't the time to watch motion pictures; now, for about the next week or so the floodgates may be opened and I could be posting here a few times per day. I know that I'll be posting at least one new review for Wednesday proper. For now, read about a rather strange little Western via my Letterboxd review below: 

This was not planned but because of various reasons I haven't felt like or just haven't been able to watch any films these past few days. However, things should be back to normal now. What a better way to get back on track than to watch an obscure Gene Autry B-movie Western which was mentioned by a mutual earlier in the year and is most noted for being horrifyingly racist viewing it with 2016 eyes? I have to note that as kids, my parents loved watching all the Westerns that were on television at the time, including the TV shows that starred Autry and Roy Rogers. I don't know how much of the 30's and 40's serials starring those two that they saw, though. At least once in a blue moon I should try to watch one of those as they are not so hard to track down, they at least are around an hour long, they should be easy watches, and there may be some things that tickle me pink.

This movie, though, the whole racism thing is like a giant stain on the carpet that you can't get out. The plot is pretty absurd: Gene and his friend named FROG MILLHOUSE deliver a herd of horses to South Africa! Yes, they went from Texas to South Africa, and they immediately were able to round up the horses then be willing and able to go on a ship taking who knows how many weeks to get there. This is done because Gene's brother is there and he's diamond mining, which is one of the rare things they got right about that particular country. It's not all “deepest darkest Africa” or sets that look like leftovers from a ripoff of a Tarzan picture, but that's a good amount of what the filmmakers think the environment of South Africa is. People are after Gene's brother, but does anyone really care about the specifics of the plot? Note that you hear a few songs, and they are fine but they were time-killers-although the song making fun of Polish people was rather unexpected-there's a potential love interest, etc.

The real issue comes up halfway through with “the natives” (i.e. black people); many of the black people you see carry spears and shields, they speak in gibberish that is supposed to be their native tongue, they have their body painted, they engage in “human sacrifice”, there's chanting, they think that Frog is a “white God” because they are entertained by his harmonica playing... it's not just absurd, it's offensive. Oh, and there is also a BLACKFACE moment where Frog disguises himself in order to try and escape the natives and he swings on vines as if he's Tarzan, then there's a gorilla... Then again, women aren't treated much better; Gene tells the lead girl to “shut up” then drags her along on an adventure against her consent.

While I can be amused that grain alcohol manages to sneak its way into the plot and it actually became a plot point, this is still basically an average story that tries to add a few different elements to the genre but it's brought down by the gross stereotypes.