The Big Show (1936)

★★★★★ · Yippee and Yeehaa!!! · kareneliot · 2010-10-16

What a joy and a delight this film is. It has everything a good movie needs. Comedy, adventure, action, romance, crime-drama, impersonation/mistaken identity, parades, horses, pretty girls, singing cowboys, movie lots, rodeos, livestock chase scenes, mobsters, and so much more I can't remember it all... It has a great, quick-moving story line, it was well-acted by likable characters, it held my interest and certainly entertained me, the picture was clear and the volume good - I really liked this movie a lot and give it my highest recommendation.

★★★★★ · Buh bye Champion · Spuzz · 2006-04-02

Buh bye Champion This was almost a guilty pleasure to like. Gene Autry plays.. Gene Autry, a stunt double for the famous cowboy Tom Ford in his movies. When Ford skips town to go fishing, his agent is in a pickle as Ford is scheduled to work the Texas National Exposition1 The agent gets a brilliant idea to send Autry instead, since they are EXACTLY alike. Well almost.. You see when Autry arrives in Dallas for the fair, he is caught singing and is put on the fairs radio for all to hear! This radio station is broadcast everywhere! Everyone hears it! The Hollywood studio where Ford works is…

★★★★★ · 1936 Time Capsule · bigshowfan · 2007-09-11

Aside from the action described in the previous reviews, "The Big Show" is almost a 1936 time capsule with the scenes listed below: Filming and stunt making at the Simi Hills area northwest of Hollywood, along with scenes on the back lots of an actual movie studio. Vintage automobiles,including a 1936 Buick and Willys and numerous other vehicles, including a cross country bus. Scenes of a typical highway of 1936. Scenes at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas, including the Gulf Oil Company Radio Studios and loudspeakers all over the fairgrounds ; scenes from The Cavalcade of Texas…

★★★★★ · Big Show, The · revdaddy · 2010-04-17

This is a totally unexpected movie. I am not usually mad about Gene Autry but this movie is a total gem. I love the music. It's popular music with a fiddle in the band kind of sound that is fun. Gene had fun making this one. No one could hate making this film. I don't know many who would hate watching it either.

★★★★ · A Gene Autry Gem · bobsluckycat · 2005-11-10

Anyone familiar with Gene Autry and his films has seeen this film in one form or another over the years. Basically it is a musical with just enough other elements mixed in to please the fan base out in the hinterlands. However a little deeper look at the picture, especially the restored version, shows a well crafted satire on the movie business, with all involved having a fun time with tongues firmly in cheeks. Put together by Mack V. Wright, assisted by Cliff Lyons, and scripted by the McGowans, Autry and company are all at the top of their collective games. The laughs are plentiful…

★★★★ · surprising gem · ajo333 · 2011-06-15

I agree with all these reviewers, and just want to add my favorite scene: in the big finish, we end up with the image of the gangsters as cowboys, commandeering a stagecoach and firing their modern, semi-automatic pistols at Autry and about 100 Texas Rangers thundering thru the art deco-modern fairgrounds. Meta before "meta" was cool! PS Ive never watched more than a few seconds of a Gene Autry movie before, but this one snagged me in the middle and led me to start over at the beginning.