Carolina Moon (1940)

After the evil Wheeler robs plantation owners of their land, Gene sets out to right the wrong.

Director:

Frank McDonald

Writers:

Winston Miller (screenplay), Connie Lee (original story)

Stars:

Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, June Storey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Gene Autry	...	Gene Autry
Smiley Burnette	...	Frog Millhouse
June Storey	...	Caroline Stanhope
Mary Lee	...	Patsy Stanhope
Eddy Waller	...	Colonel Stanhope
Hardie Albright	...	Henry Wheeler
Frank Dae	...	Colonel Jefferson
Terry Nibert	...	Evangeline Jefferson
Robert Fiske	...	Barrett
Etta McDaniel	...	Mammy
Paul White	...	Billy
Fred Ritter	...	Thompson
Ralph Sanford	...	Foreman Nelson
Texas Jim Lewis and His Lone Star Cowboys	...	Musicians (as Jimmie Lewis and his Texas Cowboys)
Texas Jim Lewis	...	Bass Player (as Jimmie Lewis and his Texas Cowboys)

Storyline

Gene Autry (Himself) and Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) encounter Caroline Stanhope (June Storey) who has come to town with her father, Colonel Stanhope (Eddy Waller), to enter her horse in the rodeo, hoping to clear enough money to clear the mortgage on their home back in Carolina. She ignores Gene's advice that the horse is too temperamental for the rodeo noise and commotion, and the horse sprains an ankle. The Colonel, taken by a couple of crooks, loses a thousand dollars in wagers and refuses to turn over his only asset, the horse, in lieu of the cash. Gene, wishing to help, offers Stanhope a thousand dollars for the horse but Caroline thinking Gene is in with the crooks, loads the horse in a trailer and heads back for Carolina. Gene, thinking the Stanhopes are in a scheme to beat him out of his money, takes Frog and follows them. There, they discover the Stanhopes are honest people, who, along with their neighbors are hard-pressed by poverty and a threatened foreclosure of ...

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Plot Keywords:

deception | horse | rodeo | colonel | contract | 

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Taglines:

A RODEO STAR OF THE WEST... becomes a shooting star... way down in Carolina!

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 July 1940 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Republic Pictures (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

54 min (edited) 65 min (original) 64 min (2004 restoration)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA High Fidelity Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Grandfather Stanhope: I don't know what the younger generation is comin' to. I never thought I'd see the day when a Stanhope lady, my own granddaughter, would go traipsin' off up North do a thing like this.

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Connections

Remake of Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935)

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Soundtracks

Dreaming Dreams That Won't Come True
(1940) (uncredited)
Written by Gene Autry, Johnny Marvin and Harry Tobias
Sung by Gene Autry and June Storey

User Reviews

Classic Autry

It's another excellent Gene Autry western, with Smiley ("Frog") Burnette and June ("nice legs, ma'am") Storey in tow who could ask for anything more? Also with that nice early '40's Republic atmosphere and a whole bunch of nice songs too.

The IMDb plot outline virtually gives the whole story away, but essentially Gene and Frog come to the rescue of plantation damsel in distress and her still Rebel grandfather. Do our heroes manage to save them from the clutches of the land-grabbing baddies out to buy up the entire countryside to augment their capitalist greed? June of course is at her wits end, but it doesn't stop her smiling along and duetting with Gene, especially the dreamy Dreaming Dreams (walking in the moonlight, with Champion too) and Say Si Si (at the piano at her plantation). Gene's solo highlight came with a too short version of the title song, whilst the Old Folks At Home got a spirited rendition from the plantation Negroes in a scene guaranteed to disturb any modern serious person brought up only on modern serious endless gratuitous sex and violence in films. For all of our sakes then I hope none of them ever see this!

Gene is wonderfully imperturbable, Smiley has his usual farcical subplot going off throughout, there's some witty smart-ass one liners thrown in. And June even has the last word - in short, although there's many of his films I've never seen it's one of my favourite Autry's.