Riders of the Whistling Pines

New science has made this particular Gene Autry western quite out of date. Seems as though the rumors those outlaws were spreading about DDT was right after all. The government did ban its use many years later.

But for Riders Of The Whistling Pines Gene is cast as a recently discharged forest ranger who is accused of killing another forest service ranger. The death is ruled accidental.

Why he was killed was that he discovered a kind of moth that can devastate the timber. Gene later discovers it and persuades the Interior Department in the form of his forest service buddies to spray DDT and save the timber.

But that doesn't help villain Douglass Dumbrille who wants the moths to kill the trees because he can strip the forest of dead trees and make a real windfall profit.

There's quite a bit more plot to this horse opera than is the case for one aimed at the Saturday Matinée crowd. There's also Jimmy Lloyd who is Autry's pal and drinking a lot because he got through World War II without a scratch and his wife died at home. Lloyd does something you would not see normally in a B picture kid's western.

Sad to say though that science really renders Riders Of The Whistling Pines quite obsolete.