Ride ‘Em Cowboy (Universal, 1942)

For a Fistful of Dollars, an Old West Movie Set Can Be Yours

In October, the New York Times published an article with the above headline about a real estate listing for the Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, California. The 400-acre spread is located about 30 miles north of Hollywood and includes two sister properties, the Sable Ranch and Rancho Maria. The listing price: 35 million US dollars.

The article indicates the facility is one of those unique Hollywood creations, a ‘movie ranch’, which provides a non-studio location for shooting television shows, commercials, and films. Despite the association of ‘ranch’ with Western cinema (and indeed the Sable Ranch has a Western town on property), the property’s IMDB credits include fewer examples of the noble genre than one would expect. Most are of a recent vintage and many appear to be of the horror variety. Still, both the article and the ranch’s website make specific mention of the movie Ride ‘Em Cowboy, an Abbott and Costello comedy from 1942. Offerings by Laurel and Hardy (Way Out West), Marx Brothers (Go West), and other classic comedians have served as topics on Jeff Arnold’s West; Abbott and Costello have not. This post addresses that gap, for better or worse.

GAGS! NAGS! SWEETIES AND SWING!
(The original tagline of Ride ‘Em Cowboy)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were riding high, having moved from seedy burlesque venues to the comedy relief in a middling movie called One Night in the Tropics to star billing in eight films in 1941 and 1942 alone. After three service comedies and a haunted house spoof, the team’s writers turned to the West. Alas, as the film unfolds, one realizes its timeframe is the 1940’s, not the 1870’s, and its setting is that notable backdrop for fun and hi-jinx, the dude ranch.

Bronco Bob Mitchell (Dick Foran, who starred as a singing cowboy in a series of 30’s Warner Brothers pictures) is a writer of Western adventures with himself as the hero. He is also a singer. He has never been west of the Hudson River and the exploits in his stories are fictitious, two facts that his adoring public doesn’t know (ah, simpler times). After a newspaper reporter publishes an exposé, he appears at the Greater New York Benefit Rodeo where Duke (Bud) and Willoughby (Lou) peddle peanuts and hot dogs.

As a way to prove his bona fides, Bronco Bob elects to deliver his (forgettable) song Give Me My Saddle in the rodeo arena on horseback. He successfully, if slowly, rides into and out of the arena; redemption appears at hand. Thanks to bumbling by Bud and Lou, however, a longhorn bull escapes and wreaks havoc behind the stands. Bronco Bob is thrown from the horse; fortunately for Bob, heroine Anne (Anne Gwynne) bulldogs the rampaging longhorn and saves the situation.

In so doing, she is injured. The injury scotches her chance at a trick riding competition and its $10,000 prize; she was, of course, a shoo-in to win. And the win would have provided publicity for her father’s dude ranch.

Exposed as a fraud to Anne, Bob apologizes and attempts to give her a $10,000 check. His clumsy attempt at amends thoroughly galls Anne. She promptly leaves for the train home. Bronco Bob follows because of Anne’s charms and her ridin’ and bulldoggin’ skills; he has a notion of actually learning cowboy ways rather than just writing about them. And Bud and Lou board the same train to escape their boss, because it wouldn’t be much of an Abbott and Costello movie without them.

Everyone ends up at the dude ranch, the Lazy S.

Anne, Lou, and Bud with Sable Ranch/Rancho Maria in the background

First, though, Bud and Lou encounter an Indian souvenir vendor (prolific character actor Douglass Dumbrille) selling ‘Indian Spring Water’. Since this is a comedy, the jugs of Indian Spring Water behave like seltzer bottles. Lou then inadvertently shoots an arrow into a heart design on the outside of a teepee. Tribal law, the vendor sternly explains, requires the shooter to marry the eligible lady inside. Needless to say, the eligible lady is not to Lou’s taste. The subsequent ire of the Indians, and their pursuit of Lou for a ‘bow-and-arrow’ wedding, establishes the film’s second subplot, next in line after Bob’s pursuit of Anne and redemption.

Upon their arrival, Bud’s verbal flimflammery and Lou’s cowboy duds (won in a poker game on the train) convince genial ranch foreman Alabam that Lou is a crack cowboy. Alabam is played by good sport Johnny Mack Brown, his character’s name seemingly a knowing nod to Brown’s home state. He hires the boys as ranch hands even after this exchange:

Alabam: Did you ever punch cattle?

Willoughby: I should say not. I never hit any animals.

Johnny Mack had played in enough Westerns by that point to know better.

Meanwhile, Bronco Bob wins over Anne and she begins to work with him on a degree in cowboy arts and sciences. A telegram from the reporter to some locals forces Bob to join the ranch’s rodeo team for the state rodeo championship; thanks to Anne, he becomes proficient enough quickly enough to not be a liability, which leads to the movie’s third (and least interesting) plot thread.

(By the way, the movie’s characters all pronounce ‘rodeo’ as rō-dā-ō, like the drive in Beverly Hills. The pronunciation definitely catches one’s ear.)

The rodeo championship is happening soon, you see, and reprehensible gambler Ace Henderson has placed a large bet against the Lazy S team. Guys named ‘Ace’ will obviously stop at nothing to win a bet, and so this Ace abducts Alabam. Bob attempts to rescue Alabam but he too is captured.

The Indians continue to harass Bud and Lou. When the pair hop into the ranch’s convertible to elude them, a chase ensues with Bud and Lou in the car, the Indians on horseback. Ultimately, of course, Bud and Lou stumble upon Alabam and Bob.

This chase takes place all over the grounds of yet another movie ranch, the Iverson Ranch. This ranch was the setting for many, many Westerns; this film provides a more expansive view of the property than most.

The Sable Ranch property mentioned at the top of this post are seen throughout the movie’s Lazy S scenes. The swimming pool sequence (Bud and Lou are hired as ranch hands, but immediately go for a swim) was filmed on the Rancho Maria side of the property.

The supporting cast includes Charles Lane, always a favorite character actor, who brings his customary vinegar to his role as the sneering reporter bedeviling Bronco Bob.

A young Ella Fitzgerald plays Ruby, who works for Anne performing a variety of duties. Mostly, though, she shows that her supple singing voice and propulsive sense of rhythm were both present from an early age.

A vocal group, the Merry Macs, are also featured. Their songs, like those of Ella, are entertaining, if gratuitously wedged into the storyline. (The ranch’s bus seems to bring a song to its riders’ lips.) Still, the Merry Macs bring considerable energy to their performances. The swing choir choreography during the square dance at the ‘Tenderfoot Barbecue’ does them no favors; then Ella joins and the square dance really starts swinging. This sequence features some fancy dancing by a trio called The Hi-Hatters, whose name appears on the film’s posters and lobby cards but not in the credits.

Dick Foran has a fine voice, and he delivers his songs the way that male vocalists in the 40s not named Armstrong, Crosby, or Sinatra were supposed to deliver songs. John Ford held Foran in enough esteem to give him a song in Fort Apache. In this film, however, his song stylings seem stolid in comparison to the jaunty Swing Era hepcats.

Even so, his second number is probably the most lasting legacy of Ride ‘Em Cowboy. The song I’ll Remember April was written for the film (by the same songwriters who wrote Give Me My Saddle). The arrangement is no great shakes, with overly sweet strings and oohing-and-aahing backup singers. But the alchemy of words and music managed to transcend its initial rendition to become an enduring standard. 

To show the boys’ mettle at bustin’ broncs and drivin’ cars, the movie uses quite a bit of speeded-up photography and other obvious film tricks. Viewed 80+ years later, these seem like a visual laugh track; to this viewer, they detract from, rather than add to, the comedy. But the script does have some moderately clever wordplay that generates laughs.

In addition to trick photography, the film hauls out that old trope, a dream sequence, which allows for a western-themed version of the burlesque ‘Crazy House’ routine. Lou, in a sanitarium and trying to rest while constantly thinking of Indians, encounters a succession of crazed fellow guests, none of whom allow him to rest.

Will Bud and Lou help Alabam and Bob escape? Will the Lazy S rodeo team win the championship in spite of the nefarious Ace? Will Lou escape his marriage-minded Indian pursuers? No spoilers here, e-pards.

Some ridin’ and shootin’,  some cowboys and Indians do not a proper Western make. But, fans of the Abbott and Costello brand of comedy could do worse.