Episode 337: The Gene Autry Show - "Fight at Peaceful Mesa"
Gene helps his friend secure an old man's land
What I watched: The eighteenth episode of The Gene Autry Show, a kid-friendly Western starring the titular singing cowboy and his sidekick Pat Buttram. "Fight at Peaceful Mesa" was directed by George Archainbaud and written by Elizabeth Beecher, with guest stars Gail Davis, George J. Lewis, and Kenneth MacDonald. The episode originally aired at 7:30 PM on Sunday, November 19, 1950 on CBS, and is available on Shout Factory TV.
Starring: This is the fourth Gene Autry episode written by Paul Gangelin, a Wisconsin-based screenwriter. Prior to moving to television, Gangelin had worked on a number of mid-level Westerns, setting him up well to move over to writing largely disposable Western scripts on TV. Gangelin’s most notable work up to this point was the Roy Rogers movie My Pal Trigger, which Rogers listed as his favourite.
What happened: The opening titles introduce Gene Autry as “America’s favourite cowboy.” As he and Pat wander through familiar scrublands, he requests in song for a loved one to be honest with him. Be careful what you wish for, man. They’ve been trekking a week from Texas to Peaceful Mesa to visit one of Gene’s old friends.
They stumble on a firefight between two gangs, and decide that they need to take a side in this quarrel. Gene and Pat split up to interview the combatants, which of course leads to them being shot at themselves. The men shooting at Gene put on masks and ride away, leading to Gene to conclude they’re the bad guys. Let’s never schedule a Lone Ranger crossover episode, okay? Gene chases the men, and a woman with a fancy hat on a carriage is pulled into the midst of it. Gene calms down her runaway horses.
Gene and the girl, Ann (Davis), catch back up with Pat and the man he was talking with, Tom Laughton (MacDonald). Tom turns out to be the girl’s father as well as an old friend who inherited an estate from Gene’s old friend Mac Forbes. Pat is a witness to the will saying that he wanted to leave the ranch to Laughton instead of his family. Tom gets Gene and Pat, who he’s just met, to watch the ranch while he’s away. Meanwhile, Pat has a crush on Ann and has gotten a present for her, and the nephew Jeff (Lewis) and his goons plot for Laughton to have an “accident.”
Pat’s present turns out to be a bonnet full of flowers, which she struggles to muster a lot of enthusiasm for. He asks Gene to sing a romantic song for the two of them, which he does. Gene is alerted to an ambush against Tom, and rides to the rescue just in time to see him fall off a rock. Gene gets in an extended fist fight with one of the goons that ends with him being shot behind a rock. Gene explains that he “twisted his gun around and shot himself.” Whatever you say, Officer. Tom survives but is paralyzed from the fall.
The nephew Jeff dresses up fancy and poses as a grieving relative of Mac, as well as a cattle buyer. Tom comes back to consciousness and tries to shoot him, only for Ann and Gene to pull the gun away. Ann suspects Jeff but Gene lets him get away. It’s all part of the plan to catch him in the end, though. Gene chases down some goons and lassos one of them off a horse Gene finds Forbes trying to sneak into the house and the two slug it out. Jeff falls on the pointy hat full of flowers, leading to Gene’s victory. After everyone has been arrested, Ann decides to keep the hat, as Pat and Gene lead the outlaws away.
What I thought: This episode has a set-up so straightforward that I was sure it would be subverted at some point. Gene and Pat immediately arrive upon a firefight, get shot at, and it turns out the side that’s shooting at them are the bad guys in the property dispute they fall into. The actual mechanics of Jeff’s attempts to seize the ranch are somewhat complicated, and I’m sure I garbled them a bit in my summary, but the morality of the story is simple. I often comment that the Western hero’s main superpower is his ability to discern right from wrong, but it’s not often as obvious as it is in “The Fight at Peaceful Mesa.”
Perhaps the only slight twist on the usual performance is the role of TV Western workhorse Gail Davis, who appears here as a love object for Pat instead of Gene. Pat’s attempts to court her make up the bulk of the episode’s comic relief, but like all women in the show she seems more taken with Gene, who goes so far as to substitute for Pat in serenading her. The episode doesn’t really go through with Gene cucking his friend, or Ann actually falling for the obviously ridiculous Pat, so it just ends up being a weird character interaction that gets subsumed by the larger plot.
What else was on: If you kept your dial tuned to CBS after Gene Autry, you would eventually hear Nat King Cole performing “Calypso Blues” on Toast of the Town. The performance is staged as something exotic, with palm fronds and hula girls in the background. Still, it was another example of Ed Sullivan’s willingness to feature young Black performers, including some who would eventually become legendary. And, of course, calypso would lead to the founding of the religion of Bokononism.
Coming up next: It’s Fran Allison’s birthday! I hope you brought a present.