Square Dance Jubilee (1949)

Two talent scouts for a New York-based country music TV show called "Square Dance Jubilee" are sent out West to get authentic western singing acts. They find what they're looking for, but also get mixed up in cattle rustling and murder.

Director:

Paul Landres

Writers:

William L. Nolte (story), Ron Ormond,

Stars:

Don 'Red' Barry, Mary Beth Hughes, Wally Vernon

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Don Blake (as Don Barry)
Mary Beth Hughes	...	Barbara Clayton
Wally Vernon	...	Seldom Sam Jenks
Spade Cooley	...	Spade
Max Terhune	...	Sheriff
John Eldredge	...	Jed Stratton
Thurston Hall	...	G.K.
Chester Clute	...	Yes-Man
Tom Tyler	...	Henchman Buck
Tom Kennedy	...	Bartender Tom
Britt Wood	...	Grubby
Clark Stevens	...	Henchman Jim Clark
Marshall Reed	...	Charlie Jordan
Lee Roberts	...	Line-Shack Henchman
Alex Montoya	...	Alvin

Storyline

In the early days of television, Don Blake and partner Sam are sent west to look for musicians and singers for the TV show Square Dance Jubilee. In their search they run into a gang of rustlers that change brands and then sell the cattle. The gang plans their next raid when the whole county is in town for the TV broadcast of the local talent. But Don and Sam are on to the rustlers and are ready.

---

Plot Keywords:

talent scout | square dancing

---

Taglines:

Come on everybody! For the time of your life--get set to enjoy the grandest array of hoe-down entertainment ever assembled in one big happy hit!

---

Genres:

Musical | Western

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 1949 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch - 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Donald Barry Productions, Lippert Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Don Blake: We were looking for the old west...we've found it. An old town, a beautiful blonde, changing brands, rustlers, dry gulching. Reminds me of a Don 'Red' Barry western.
Sam Jenks: Don 'Red' Barry? He's my favorite actor. Did you see the picture where...
Don Blake: [interrupting] I never liked him!

---

Soundtracks

"Mocking Bird"
Sung by Smiley and Kitty

User Reviews

Entertaining country musical jubilee with Don Barry and Wally Vernon

With a plot not unlike that of KENTUCKY JUBILEE (also a Lippert release), ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, HOOTENANNY HOOT, DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST, and many other "talent scout tries to put together a show" musical films, SQUARE DANCE JUBILEE finds leading man Don Barry teamed with rubber-faced funny-man Wally Vernon as television men looking in the rural west for talented country music performers to be featured on a network program (one in which we see Spade Cooley perform at the beginning of the film--in fact, Cooley addresses the audience and INTRODUCES the film!). The talent is fantastic, featuring Cowboy Copas doing a number of tunes, along with the lesser-known Claude Casey, who is also a fine country singer. Even west-coast country-music comic performer Herman the Hermit has a brief, strange appearance. If that's not enough, we get great performances from Max Terhune (without his dummy, Elmer, but doing some great vocal gymnastics!), Snub Pollard, Tom Kennedy, Tom Tyler as the "muscle" for the crooked town boss played with glee by John Eldredge (see my review of his great performance as the murderous blind date in LONELY HEART BANDITS, made the next year at Republic), and many regular b-movie faces. The film combines an exciting western-crime plot with entertaining music and dancing with well-played comedy sequences. Heck, even Don Barry himself sings a novelty song called "Girl in the Mink Blue Jeans" that isn't bad (although he was wise to keep his day job as an actor!). I don't see how someone could give this film a low rating because it completely achieves what it set out to do. It's basically a musical performance film strung together with a crime plot and comedy relief. The music is good, the western-crime plot is exciting and entertaining, and the comedy is well done. And it does all that in a little over an hour, and it probably was very cheap to make. If I were a small-town moviegoer in 1949 who enjoyed Spade Cooley's TV show, who had liked Don "Red" Barry in his earlier films, and who liked Wally Vernon's comedy shorts, I'd be pleased as punch to put down a dollar or so to get all of that in one entertaining package. This "Donald Barry production" for Lippert Pictures is an entertaining little gem of a b-movie, and I've watched it every year or two for a decade now. I look forward to watching it again soon...