Night Stage to Galveston

Gene Autry was a Texan first, last, and always. The singing telegrapher from Tioga, Texas was certainly steeped in the traditions of his home state and one of those traditions was the corruption of the Texas State Police that was founded during the Reconstruction post Civil War era. When carpetbag rule ended the State Police were put out of business and the Texas Rangers reconstituted.

These guys were not boy scouts and they had their share of corruption. But what you won't see in Night Stage To Galveston is the fact that the real objection to the Texas State Police was that they hired black officers. But what we see here is the mythology that Texans of Autry's generation grew up with.

Gene Autry and Pat Buttram are a pair of ex-Rangers who are aligned with crusading editor and former Confederate Colonel Thurston Hall to expose the State Police. Here the police are headed by former cowboy hero Robert Livingston and he's a ruthless sort. Young Judy Nugent is a juvenile whose father was killed by Livingston's storm troopers and she's taken in by Hall and his daughter Virgina Huston. Nugent's scenes with Hall are kind of cute.

This is a decent enough Gene Autry western, but it is hardly telling the real story.