Valley of Fire

Cowboy hero Gene Autry goes into politics and gets himself elected mayor of a gold camp town which has the problem of their being only one woman in the whole settlement. And that woman is Christine Larson who with Harry Lauter runs the local saloon and gambling palace where the hard earned money from the miners is taken.

Mayor Autry decides that the best thing to do is kick the gamblers out and bring in some women and give these miners some brides and some other forms of recreation. But Lauter gets a deal going with another sex starved gold settlement nearby and the race is on.

In the meantime Russell Hayden is a second villain here who robs stages carrying gold, kills the drivers, and then launders it through his own mining claim. He takes a fancy to Gail Davis, one of the brides and also goes in with Lauter on his bride deal. That does not please Larson who does not have a good history with Hayden.

Russell Hayden was generally a B movie western hero, but occasionally went to the dark side. He's best remembered as Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick Lucky Jenkins. He's a slick article in this film.

This subject was also dealt with in a much more brutal and grim fashion in the MGM western Westward The Women starring Robert Taylor which also came out in 1951. Even so with white hat cowboy hero Gene Autry this film touches on some non-family film subjects like sex in the west ever so gingerly.

Pat Buttram plays Gene's sidekick as he was starting to do on the big screen and the small. Valley Of Fire was a bit more adult of a film than the normal Gene Autry film of the time. And you sure wouldn't see Roy Rogers doing stuff like this.