The Singing Hill

The Singing Hill is a 1941 American Western film directed by Lew Landers and starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Virginia Dale. Based on a story by Jesse Lasky Jr. and Richard Murphy, the film is about a singing cowboy and foreman of a ranch that may be sold to an unscrupulous banker by the young madcap heiress who is unaware that the sale will result in the local ranchers losing their free grazing land and their ranches. In the film, Autry performed the 1940 song "Blueberry Hill", first recorded by Sammy Kaye, which would become a standard recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong (1949), Fats Domino (1956), and Elvis Presley (1957). The song became one of Autry's best-selling recordings. In 1987, "Blueberry Hill" received an ASCAP Award for Most Performed Feature Film Standards on TV. Plot Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) is the foreman of the Circle R Ranch, which has been in the Adams family for generations. The ranchers in the area have enjoyed free grazing rights on the Circle R for years. Recently, the madcap heiress of the ranch, beautiful Jo Adams (Virginia Dale), negotiated the sale of the ranch in order to pay off some of her debts. She accepted a $25,000 down payment, with an option to purchase in 60 days, from unscrupulous cattle broker John Ramsey (George Meeker) who is conspiring with Adams' business manager James Morgan (Harry Stubbs) to buy the ranch and cut off grazing rights to the ranchers. As the head of the cattlemen's association, Gene is accused of betraying the ranchers after they learn that the Circle R is being sold and that their grazing rights, bequeathed to them by Jo's late grandfather, will be taken away. Without access to the Circle R pasture lands, most of the ranches in the area will go bankrupt. Determined to persuade Jo to change her mind, Gene and his pals, Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette), Cactus Mack (Cactus Mack), and Patsy (Mary Lee), drive to Jo's palatial house in the city. The scatterbrained Jo mistakes them for the band hired to play at her birthday party that evening, and they perform in order to stay. After the party, Gene explains who they are and urges Jo to return to the ranch and run it the way her grandfather did. The frivolous heiress, however, has no intention of changing her extravagant lifestyle.