Gene Autry: Collection 07

Gene Autry's first starring feature turn "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (1935) finds the singing cowboy returning home after a five-year absence to find his father murdered and his old pal charged with the crime, so he teams with sidekick Smiley Burnette to find the real killer. With Lucille Browne and Gabby Hayes, plus such Autry song standards as "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" and the title tune. Next, singing sheriff Autry has to deal with big-city black hats when Chicago mobsters (!) head out west to track down a murder witness. "The Old Corral" (1936) also features the Sons of the Pioneers (with a young Roy Rogers); Burnette, Hope Manning, Lon Chaney, Jr. co-star. A Chicago man's death leaves Gene in charge of the departed's three children, who join him out west just in time to help him fight some rustlers. "Prairie Moon" (1938) co-stars Burnette, Shirley Deane. Finally, Autry and sidekick Burnette try to help a young woman and her father save their plantation, only to become suspicious they might be crooked, in "Carolina Moon" (1940). Hardie Albright, June Storey co-star. 7 hrs. total on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.