Television
The Gene Autry Show
Thunder Out West
Flying A Pictures
Season 3, Episode 1 (3-01)
Production #53
Network: CBS
Running Time: 30 minutes
Black and White
Original Air Date:
Tuesday, July 14, 1953
Sponsor: Wrigley's Doublemint Chewing Gum
Brief Synopsis:
A clever safe cracker uses Pat's mail-order telescope to get the information he needs to commit his crimes.
Detailed Synopsis:
Sheriff Gene Autry is confronted with the mysterious dynamiting and robbing of a safe in the office of the Cattlemen's Co-Operative Association. The sole clue is the long fuse the robber used, which Gene and his deputy Pat Buttram time at 4 1/2 minutes. Gene is puzzled by this and does not understand why someone would need a fuse that long to blow the safe. Pat provides the answer when he suggests that the long fuse was necessary so that the robber could get away. This leads Gene to suspect that money had already been stolen and that the dynamiting was a cover up. He and Pat ride out to see the manager of the Association, George Evans, who has a solid alibi in the Reverend Parker. However, the Reverend says that while he and Evans were playing chess, Evans' daughter Lorna went to bed around the time of the incident. After being arrested, Evans admits to the dynamiting, but explains it was done not for the purpose of committing the robbery but to cover the earlier disappearance of the money from the safe under circumstances that make him appear an embezzler. Evans claims that nothing was disturbed when the money was stolen. Meanwhile, Pat is obsessed with his brand-new mail-order telescope, through which he studies the stars. When Gene finds Pat spying on a hand of poker at the local saloon, he realizes that somebody could have used the telescope to obtain the combination to the safe. Gene then sets a trap for the robber, whom he suspects is disgruntled former member of the Association Jim Lear. Evans will replace the safe's door and lock and change the combination, while the Reverend will store the money for the new church in the safe. They are both to let everyone in town know about the plan. When everything is in place, Gene sets a clever burglar alarm using the telephone. His theory proves correct, but to his surprise, he discovers that the thief is hotel owner John Turner, whom he had not suspected. Turner is rounded up, as is Lear, who had tried to ambush Gene and Pat on the way to town with the church money.
Cast:
| Character: | Performer: |
| Gene Autry | Gene Autry |
| Pat Buttram | Pat Buttram |
| Lorna Evans | Wendy Waldron |
| George Evans | Lyle Talbot |
| Jim Lear | Harry Lauter |
| John Turner | William Fawcett |
| Reverend Parker | Lane Chandler |
| Cobb | Tom Tyler |
| Bush | Larry Hudson |
| Oaks | George Slocum |
| Champion | Champion, World's Wonder Horse |
Songs:
| Old Nevada Moon | Gene Autry |
Crew:
| Executive in charge of Production |
Armand Schaefer |
| Directed by | George Archainbaud |
| Producer | Louis Gray |
| Screenplay | Dorrell & Stuart McGowan |
| Director of Photography | William Bradford, A.S.C. |
| Film Editor | Anthony Wollner |
| Musical Director | Carl Cotner |
| Music Supervisor | Irving Friedman |
| Musical Score | Walter Greene |
| Assistant Director | Harry Mancke |
| Recorded by | Glen Glenn Sound Company |
