Home in Wyomin' | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | William Morgan |
Produced by | Harry Grey |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | Stuart Palmer |
Starring | |
Music by | Raoul Kraushaar (supervisor) |
Cinematography | Ernest Miller |
Edited by | Edward Mann |
Production
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Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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67 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $84,006 |
Home in Wyomin' is a 1942 American Western film directed by William Morgan and starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Fay McKenzie. Based on a story by Stuart Palmer, the film is about a singing cowboy who helps out a former employer in trouble with his failing rodeo while romancing a woman reporter. In Home in Wyomin', Autry sang his hit songs "Be Honest with Me", "Back in the Saddle Again", and "Tweedle O'Twill", as well as Irving Berlin's "Any Bonds Today", becoming the first major star to sing the official song of the U.S. Defense Bond campaign during the war.
Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) appears on a radio program to promote U.S. Defense Bonds. In the audience, wisecracking photographer Clementine Benson (Fay McKenzie) and reporter "Hack" Hackett (Chick Chandler) make fun of the singer and his devoted fans. After the program, Clementine and Hack try to get an embarrassing story on Gene, who knows their game and eludes the pair, who previously ridiculed him in print.
Gene is approached by Pop Harrison (Forrest Taylor), the owner of the rodeo troupe that gave Gene and his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) their start. Pop is worried that his son Tex is destroying their rodeo through his irresponsible drinking and gambling. Always ready to help out a friend, Gene decides to drive to Gold Ridge, Wyoming to lend a hand with the rodeo and straighten Tex out. Frog and Frog's brother Tadpole accompany him to Wyoming. They are followed by Clementine and Hack, who were ordered to follow Gene.
When they arrive at Bartlett's dude ranch in Wyoming, they watch Tex and the boys are preparing for their next rodeo. Hack's laughter at Tex's drunkenness provokes a fistfight, and Hack, a former prizefighter, easily beats up the drunken cowboy. Afterwards, Gene uses the incident as an opportunity to give Tex a stern lecture. Tex agrees to start acting more responsibly, and Gene tells him to attend that night's barbecue so the others can see that he's changed his ways.
That night, Hack follows three suspicious ranch guests to a saloon, where he joins them in a card game along with Tex and Sunrise (Olin Howland), an eccentric miner who shows off some gold he found. Hack quickly wins several hands, happy to take their money and Sunrise's gold. The leader of the three suspicious ranch guests, Crowley (George Douglas), is unnerved when Hack implies that he knows them from Chicago and is aware of Crowley's shady past. Gene comes to the saloon and retrieves Tex. After Hack leaves the saloon, Crowley, who is actually a gangster named Luigi Scalese, and his men follow him. On the road, someone takes a shot at Hack, nearly missing him.