Song of the Prairie (1949)

Whilst I'm not sure I recall too many damsels in distress from Western movies either knitting or delivering some perfectly pitched light opera, we have that here in this enjoyable puppet-style animated parody of all things Wild West. Our adventure is all centred around a stagecoach travelling through what looks like Death Valley. The driver is getting steadily more drunk as they enter the dangerous territory where the bandits lurk. They want the gold, sure - but what about our chanteuse? Is she quite as weak and feeble as we might expect? Much of it is set at night, which isn't great for the detail and the lighting, but the caricatures work well here - especially the card tricks, the howling wolves and the dastardly banditos giving us a bit of a gunfight at the end who allow our very own acrobatic "Ringo Kid" to ride in to maybe save the day and, we hope, the gal! When the sopranos allow, this is a more traditionally scored, entertaining and even slightly menacing pastiche that John Ford and Howard Hawks might have been able to smile at. Maybe even John Wayne too - he didn't mind a bit of singing in his early films. The ending - well that just proves the dangers of smoking and is great fun.