Want to know the best Gene Autry movies? How about the worst Gene Autry movies? Curious about Gene Autry box office grosses or which Gene Autry movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Gene Autry movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Gene Autry (1907-1998) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, musician, and rodeo performer. Autry gained fame by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades. His IMDb page shows 99 acting credits from 1934 to 1985. This page will rank Gene Autry movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles, and movies that were not released in North American were not included in the rankings.
A shout out to Mike. Without his hard work of digging through old Variety magazines and finding Autry box office nuggets, there is no way this page would have ever been completed. So thank you, Mike. Your work was impressive and appreciated. You impressed WoC too!
Gene Autry Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Gene Autry Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.
- Sort Gene Autry movies by his co-stars
- Sort Gene Autry movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Gene Autry movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Gene Autry movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Gene Autry movie received.
- Sort Gene Autry movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews, and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Gene Autry
1. Orvon Grover “Gene” Autry was born in Grayson County in Texas in 1907.
2. According to a Hollywood legend, published in The Orange County Register after his death, Autry was discovered singing in a telegraph office in Oklahoma by Will Rogers. Rogers told him that he had a pretty good voice, and suggested that he go to Hollywood where he could make some money singing in the movies.
3. Gene Autry’s nickname was “The Singing Cowboy”.
4. Of Gene Autry’s 92 starring features, only The Strawberry Roan (1948) and The Big Sombrero (1949) were filmed and released in color.
5. Gene Autry’s Cowboy Code: 1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage. 2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him. 3. He must always tell the truth. 4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals. 5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas. 6. He must help people in distress. 7. He must be a good worker. 8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits. 9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation’s laws. 10. The Cowboy is a patriot.
6. Almost 70 years after the last Gene Autry western, he is better known to later generations as a singer. His remastered vintage recordings of “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” remain very popular holiday standards into the 21st century.
7. During World War II, when Gene Autry left Republic Pictures to join the U.S. Army, he was the only officer allowed to wear cowboy boots with his uniform.
8. Gene Autry was nominated for a Best Music, Original Song Oscar® for 1941’s Ridin’ On A Rainbow.
9. Gene Autry was the first owner of the Los Angeles Angels MLB baseball team.
10. The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma, was named in his honor, as was the Gene Autry precinct in Mesa, Arizona.
Check out Gene Autry‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA Continued: Gene’s mega financial interests included vast real estate holdings; a professional baseball team; hotels; a television studio and several radio stations. He acquired The Anaheim Angels in 1960 and held the team until his death. He actually sold a portion to Walt Disney in 1995 and then his widow sold the remainder of the team a year after his death.
In 1982 he sold KTLA television station for $245 million. At the time of his death in 1998, Gene’s worth was estimated at $500 million in 2020 dollars. That was enough to make him one of the 400 richest Americans. Autry also owned the Major League Baseball team the Angels which was located in Los Angeles, California, and Anaheim from 1961 to 1997.
In short Gene as a colossal entertainment/sports magnet could in his day be said to have transcended movies in the way that Wayne did as the perceived epitome of an American Icon and Valentino did as the gold standard for The Great Lover and heart-throb; and Gene still has a strong legacy as a recording artist.
LOCAL TRIVIA [Repeated]: In his 1985 song “Boffyflow and Spike” legendary singer Van Morrison a Belfast man refers to “Wee Alfie at the Castle picture house on the Castlereagh Road Belfast whistling on the corner next door where he kept Johnny Mack Brown’s horse.”
In the early 1950s wall-to-wall Johnny Mack Brown B movie westerns appeared weekly for a number of years in continual re-runs at the Castle cinema that I frequented; and we youngsters used to joke that between showings Wee Alfie [a genuine nature’s dwarf with a wonderful sense of humour] looked after Johnny Mack’s horse or that it was kept in the Castle cinema rest room. Fast forward 70 years and I know one other Horse that I would like to lock in a cinema rest room – and throw away the key!
Hey Bob. Great information on Gene Autry the business man. I agree with your comment 100%. Not bad for a person that came to Hollywood with almost nothing in his pockets. Good detail about Boffyflow and Spike, Johnny Mack Brown and the movies you saw at the Castle. If I get your “horse” comment at the end…..Gene to Joel…gotta love it. Good information.
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA:
As Bruce points out in his comment below Gene’s movies broke no box office records; and indeed not one of them crashed the Cogerson $100 million barrier. However my understanding has been that the B western movies in their great Golden Era of the 1930s and 1940s were not designed to be blockbusters.
Their raison detre was to be mass-produced on low budgets that collectively would generate healthy profits and Gene was competing with a great swathe of other actors in the genre: Rogers; Whip Wilson; Rocky Layne; Tex Ritter; Lash Larue; Wild Bill Elliot; Charles Starrett as The Durango Kid; Johnny Mack Brown; Bill Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy; Duncan Renaldo as The Cisco Kid and many others
Also Autry’s net worth figure in Part One is so massive because he eventually parlayed his fame into a business empire and proved that as a ‘tycoon’ he could “play with the big boys”. See Part 3.
Hey Bob….good thoughts on the success of his movies. I think based on the research Mike did, Gene did not play well in the big cities….but in rural America he was king. I will have to ask my father-in-law about Gene and Roy, and see how theaters like the one in Auburn, Alabama reacted when their movies reach the theaters. I suspect, that the rural theater owners gave Gene high marks for bringing out the kids on Saturday….so they rated him as one of the biggest box office stars.
Gene and Roy Rogers were generally perceived as the two top stars among the prolific B movie cowboys whose heyday was the thirties thru the early fifties and whom I loved watching as a boy.
I think I marginally preferred Roy when I was growing up but both men accumulated wealth at the levels traditionally enjoyed by normally just the A list stars of the cinema. The following are 6 examples of reported net worth with the net holdings at time of death having been adjusted for inflation; Hanks/Cruise figures are actual:
Tom Cruise//$570 million
Gene Autry/$500 Million
Tom Hanks/$400 million
John Wayne/$190 million
Roy Rogers/$150 million
Cary Grant/$130 million
[Sources: Celeb Net Worth site and Wikipedia]
Hey Bob. Thanks for the information on Gene Autry. I am sure Gene fans will be upset that you give the slight edge to Roy. I have not seen a single movie by either….but I sure knew their names growing up. That is a nice net worth….but I suspect as the owner of the baseball Angels….he would be a billionaire today. Good information.
I’m thinking back nearly 70 years of course but if I recall correctly my reason for preferring Roy to Gene was that Autry’s films were more modernized than those of the other B movie cowboys as Gene’s flicks at times had cars and aircraft in them.
That setting maybe appealed to Gene as he was into modern things like radio and TV stations in his business dealings; but to me they robbed his movies of the atmosphere of the traditional [John Wayne type] western. Another example is Old Cantankerous’ 1955 Bad Day at Black Rock: historians are divided about whether it is a western; a film noir; or a mixture of both.
Good observant about Autry and the big cities. We have had example s of that over here with for example Brando being a “big city” man and Charley Bill appealing more to the small towns. For example when Teahouse of the August Moon came out in 1956 Marlon alone dominated the marquees in the center of Belfast whereas in the rural areas Charley Bill got star billing. Win-win for me of course as they were both my idols.
Anyway thanks for your comprehensive 3-part feedback on my own posts; and by the way I am currently waiting on my copy of your new book arriving from Amazon. Accordingly it will be a few days before I can offer comment on it. The latter will be worth waiting for of course and I’m sure you will not wish to commence work on a 3rd volume before you have my views on the 2nd one!!!! Meanwhile keep safe.
Hey Bob. Thanks for explaining why you liked Roy more than Gene. I can understand the modern vehicles like cars and airplanes taking you out of the “western” mode when watching a B western. Good memory on Brando and Charly Bill. Thanks for buying the book. I think I have lots of time before the third book….as this one caused a little too much stress….that being said a third book will probably focus on classic stars. Looking forward to your thoughts on book 2.
First a big thanks to Mike who dug up figures on a genre that I thought you could never find anything out on moneywise. Think of all the neglected cowboy stars like Roy Rogers, Charles Starrett, Johnny Mack Brown, Tim Holt, Wild Bill Elliott (or Bill Elliott when he made A pictures) and many others.
I think I beat Flora in Gene Autry films seen. The following is all 74 films with top-billed Gene Autry that I’ve seen since December 1992. Gene Autry is the actor I have seen the most films in that time by. Outside the serial Phantom Empire all were seen from TV.
Films are listed by company, date shown plus source which are all TV channels except the above named,
AMC = American Movie Classics, West is Encore West, CUNY is the City University of New York channel, 21 is WLIW Long Island, a PBS channel.
APACHE COUNTRY 1952 COL 9/30 2003 WEST
BACK IN THE SADDLE 1941 REP 9/5 2002 WEST
BARBED WIRE 1952 COL 7/8 2003 WEST
BELLS OF CAPISTRANO 1942 REP 9/16 2002 WEST
BIG SOMBRERO 1949 COL 10/23 1994 AMC
BLAZING SUN 1950 COL 8/7 2003 WEST
BLUE MONTANA SKIES 1939 REP 9/6 2004 WEST
CALL OF THE CANYON 1942 REP 5/19 2004 WEST
COLORADO SUNSET 1939 REP 10/14 2002 WEST
COMIN’ ROUND THE MOUNTAIN 1936 REP 10/6 2004 WEST
COW TOWN 1950 COL 3/7 2003 WEST
COWBOY AND THE INDIANS 1949 COL 4/3 2003 WEST
COWBOY SERENADE 1942 REP 4/29 2004 WEST
DOWN MEXICO WAY 1941 REP 3/23 1995 AMC
GAUCHO SERENADE 1940 REP 3/8 2002 WEST
GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGGIES 1937 REP 1/9 2003 WEST
GOLD MINE IN THE SKY 1938 REP 10/13 2004 WEST
GOLDTOWN GHOST RIDERS 1953 COL 10/2 2003 WEST
GUNS AND GUITARS 1937 REP 1/29 2004 WEST
HILLS OF UTAH 1951 COL 5/25 2003 WEST
HOME IN WYOMIN’ 1942 REP 8/29 2002 WEST
HOME ON THE PRAIRIE 1939 REP 3/30 2006 WEST
IN OLD MONTEREY 1939 REP 2/12 2003 WEST
INDIAN TERRITORY 1950 COL 3/9 2003 WEST
LAST OF THE PONY RIDERS 1953 COL 10/2 2003 WEST
LAST ROUNDUP 1947 COL 9/12 2005 WEST
LOADED PISTOLS 1948 COL 2/27 2006 WEST
MELODY RANCH 1940 REP 4/27 2003 WEST
MEXICALI ROSE 1939 REP 8/8 2002 WEST
MULE TRAIN 1950 COL 4/3 2003 WEST
NIGHT STAGE TO GALVESTON 1952 COL 9/4 2003 WEST
OLD BARN DANCE 1938 REP 9/5 1994 21
OLD WEST 1952 COL 9/4 2003 WEST
ON TOP OF OLD SMOKEY 1953 COL 11/11 2003 WEST
PACK TRAIN 1953 COL 11/29 2003 WEST
PHANTOM EMPIRE 1935 MASCOT 11/6 2019 DVD
PRAIRIE MOON 1938 REP 8/1 2004 WEST
PUBLIC COWBOY NO. 1 1937 REP 2/6 2005 WEST
RANCHO GRANDE 1940 REP 4/7 2004 WEST
RED RIVER VALLEY 1936 REP 4/6 2005 WEST
RHYTHM OF THE SADDLE 1938 REP 2/15 2005 WEST
RIDE TENDERFOOT RIDE 1940 REP 2/5 2004 WEST
RIDERS IN THE SKY 1949 COL 9/29 2003 WEST
RIDERS OF THE WHISTLING PINES 1949 COL 7/5 1994 CUNY
RIDIN’ ON A RAINBOW 1941 REP 9/5 2002 WEST
RIM OF THE CANYON 1949 COL 3/8 2004 WEST
ROOTIN, TOOTIN’ RHYTHM 1937 REP 8/28 1994 CUNY
ROUNDUP TIME IN TEXAS 1937 REP 3/2 2000 WEST
ROVIN’ TUMBLEWEEDS 1939 REP 4/7 2002 WEST
SADDLE PALS 1947 REP 12/6 2002 WEST
SAGEBRUSH TROUBADOR 1936 REP 3/24 2004 WEST
SAGINAW TRAIL 1953 COL 6/9 2004 WEST
SIERRA SUE 1941 REP 9/6 2002 WEST
SILVER CANYON 1951 COL 9/30 2003 WEST
SINGING COWBOY 1936 REP 1/8 2004 WEST
SINGING HILL 1941 REP 11/8 2004 WEST
SINGING VAGABOND 1936 REP 11/4 2004 WEST
SIOUX CITY SUE 1946 REP 3/9 2002 WEST
SONS OF NEW MEXICO 1949 COL 2/6 2003 WEST
SOUTH OF THE BORDER 1939 REP 12/23 1994 AMC
STARDUST ON THE SAGE 1942 REP 3/9 2005 WEST
STRAWBERRY ROAN 1948 COL 10/24 1994 AMC
SUNSET IN WYOMING 1941 REP 11/10 2004 WEST
TEXANS NEVER CRY 1951 COL 6/23 2003 WEST
TRAIL TO SAN ANTONE 1947 REP 9/4 2002 WEST
TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS 1935 REP 6/3 2012 WEST
TWILIGHT ON THE RIO GRANDE 1947 REP 4/27 2008 WEST
UNDER FIESTA STARS 1941 REP 6/19 2002 WEST
VALLEY OF FIRE 1951 COL 7/6 2003 WEST
WAGON TEAM 1952 COL 9/30 2003 WEST
WESTERN JAMBOREE 1938 REP 11/24 2002 WEST
WHIRLWIND 1951 COL 6/18 2007 WEST
WINNING OF THE WEST 1953 COL 6/26 2004 WEST
YODELIN’ KID FROM PINE RIDGE 1937 REP 12/6 2004 WEST
I’m not listing any other individual stars and when I saw their films, Gene is an exception because I figured no one watches B westerns.
There are only 3 people on the 2020 Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 that appeared with Gene.
154 MARC LAWRENCE Call of the Canyon (1942)
462 STUART WHITMAN Barbed Wire (1952)
597 PAUL FIX Down Mexico Way (1941)
Gene did not appear with any Oscar winners in films.
The following actors appeared in at least 16 films with Gene.
83 Frankie Marvin
79 Champion (his horse)
63 Smiley Burnette (his sidekick, also a regular on Petticoat Junction)
29 Herman Hack
27 Jack Kirk
25 Tom London
24 Chuck Baldra
23 Roy Bucko
21 Frank Ellis and Fred Burns
20 Sandy Sanders, Jim Corey, Art Dillard, Al Taylor, Cactus Mack
18 Bob Burns (not Martha Raye’s husband who made the top box office stars in the late 30’s), also Pat Buttram (another sidekick, Mr. Haney on Green Acres)
17 Bob Woodward
16 Jack Tornek and Bert Dodson
I have Here Comes Santa Claus by Gene on a 78 (remember them). I have no devices to play that record.
Wow. 74 movies seen, that is fantastic, Dan. I don’t watch B westerns much, although I do watch B film noir, B Crime and B Musicals.
He was actually in the regular top 10 Box office stars a few years but never had a weekly top 10 film, They used to have a box office stars for just westerns and he was # 1 for about 6 years till he joined the army. Roy Rogers took over as # 1 till those listings stopped circa 1953 or 54 depending on which publication you use. A few cowboy stars had pictures in the regular top 10 but it was usually not appearing in them when they were in. George O’Brien who starred in B’s for Fox and RKO (the RKO’s are run by TCM) starred in other films in the 20’s that made the top 10 like Noah’s Ark (also available on TCM). Johnny Mack Brown starred in a couple of big westerns for MGM in 1930 and 1931 and got second billed to Joan Crawford in a few films but ended up starring in B’s. Of course we can’t forget William Boyd who played Hopalong Cassidy. He starred in some Cecil B. DeMille films in the 20’s that made the top 10 weeklies..
Hey Dan. Good information on the B cowboys of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Of all the ones you mentioned..I think Johnny Mack Brown might have the most movies already in our database..6 movies.
MovieYear MovieScorePct
Belle of the Nineties (1934) 86.00
Our Dancing Daughters (1928) 79.64
Coquette (1929) 73.22
Montana Moon (1930) 68.69
Single Standard, The (1929) 67.19
Boss of Bullion City (1940) 0.24
Actually William Boyd tie him
MovieYear MovieScorePct
Volga Boatman, The (1926) 91.51
Yankee Clipper, The (1927) 66.50
Road To Yesterday, The (1925) 62.30
Cop, The (1928) 55.30
Dress Parade (1927) 48.62
Skyscraper (1928) 44.40
Good stuff.
Hey Flora…I am right there with you….WOW WOW WOW WOW. 74 Gene Autry movies is an amazing total for Dan.
Hey Dan.
1. Great comment on Gene Autry.
2. Thanks for giving Mike some shout outs for all the work he did to get this page completed.
3. Hmmmm….you pose an interesting question…is your 74 Gene Autry movies seen more than the one and the none that I have seen. Going to have to get the calculator out to get that answer….lol.
4. 74 Gene Autry movies! That is impressive, as is the list of information of seeing those 74 movies….you are the man!
5. Phantom Empire is the Autry project that interests me the most in seeing. Sadly we were unable to locate grosses on that.
6. As for your missing cowboys….it might be a long time before oy Rogers, Charles Starrett, Johnny Mack Brown, Tim Holt, Wild Bill Elliot get UMR pages.
7. First list and second lists…talk about a small lists 3 for one and 0 on the other.
8. Another interesting thing I noticed….of all these movies…he does not have a single UMR Co-Star….not sure that has ever happened before.
9. Good information on all those actors and actresses that have appeard in more than 16 movies with him.
10. Here Comes Santa Claus on 78 might be worth something…..just checked…you are sitting on a gold mine…as it sells between 5 and 14 dollars…lol.
Awesome informaton….thanks for taking the time to share it.
I actually went circa 2002 or 2003 to Branson, Missouri and while there my wife and me visited the Roy Rogers museum where he actually had his horse Trigger stuffed. Alas the museum is no more and Trigger was sold. Did get a book on the films of Roy Rogers there but no box office is listed for anything.
Hey Dan. Your trip to Branson sounds interesting. It is a shame the museum is no longer around. I guess the name Roy Rogers is fading away…..but boy was it big when I was growing up.
Remember his restaurants?
FYI
I have almost completed the year 1943 and have have found several movies from some of the western actors listed.
I will keep you posted
Hey Mike…sounds good.
Flora wins , I am 0 for autry. great trivia , as always. I love his cowboy code.
He bob cox…Flora’s 1 held the top spot for awhile….but then Dan dropped his 74 Gene Autry movies and takes the prize. Glad you enjoyed the trivia and his cowboy code. Good stuff as always.