Oh, Susanna! (1936) Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Frances Grant, Earle Hodgins Movie Review

Oh, Susanna! (1936)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Gene Autry in Oh, Susanna! (1936)

A Frog's Gene

Gene (Gene Autry) finds himself with a sore head when whilst travelling by train he is knocked out by outlaw Wolf Benson (Boothe Howard) who tosses him out of the train and then takes on Gene's identity. Fortunately for Gene Frog (Smiley Burnette) and the Professor (Earle Hodgins) find him dazed and confused in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile Wolf masquerading as Gene robs and kills a man with the real Gene ending up going to jail for the crime. Fortunately Frog and the Professor come to his rescue to break him out so that he can find a way of clearing his name.

Can you imagine in this day and age a western being made which was not only a musical like "Oh, Susanna!" is but featured a group of musicians called The Light Crust Doughboys? In fact it makes me wonder how anyone ever came up with the name The Light Crust Doughboys as it is a bit left field.

Anyway, get the curiosity of a band name out of the way and what we have with "Oh, Susanna!" is a pretty standard western where a good guy gets arrested for a crime thanks to the bad guy masquerading as him and so with the aid of some comical pals has to clear his name. Of course with this being a musical western we have various songs to be sung and no old western would be correct without a damsel for are hero to be involved with. Of course there is more to this than that but it is a case that it is a western built on the basic building blocks with only personal favouritism, such as a fondness for Autry make it more appealing to one person than another.

What this all boils down to is that for me "Oh, Susanna!" is just another old musical western which is okay with its light hearted tone. But I would imagine those who are fans of Gene Autry will find it more entertaining.


LATEST REVIEWS