Melody Ranch (1940)

Anecdotes

Melody Ranch is a 1940 Western musical film directed by Joseph Santley and starring Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, and Ann Miller. Written by Jack Moffitt, F. Hugh Herbert, Bradford Ropes, and Betty Burbridge, the film is about a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town. In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board and being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Production

Melody Ranch marks the first romantic leading lady role for dancer Ann Miller. In one love scene Miller and Autry kiss. Negative advance publicity, however, led Republic Pictures to cut the kiss from the final print. Autry later recalled,

Actually we kissed there at the telephone. There was a lot of (advance) publicity over that. The public relations department at republic put out a story I was going to be kissing Ann Miller in a picture. So they were flooded with a lot of letters from the kids saying 'Don't let Gene Autry kiss Ann Miller in the picture—that's sissy!' So finally at the last minute (Republic) said, 'You're taking a chance on it—why raise a controversy with the kids…

Melody Ranch was filmed September 16 to October 5, 1940. The film had an operating budget of $181,275 (equal to $4,165,880 today), and a negative cost of $177,520.

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Red Rock Canyon State Park, Highway 14, Cantil, California, USA

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