Gene Autry Collection, Vol. 7 and a Western Double Feature with Apache (1954) & The Hills Run Red (1967) have been set by Timeless Media for release on August 26th.
Two of the four titles in the Autry set are making their DVD debut (Prairie Moon & Carolina Moon) while both titles in the double feature were previously by MGM. Additionally, Apache was theatrically released in widescreen, but MGM's DVD release 13 years ago was pan & scan.
No definitive word from Timeless as to whether or not it will be released in the original aspect ratio, but they did indicate that they received the master from MGM and did not perform a fresh transfer themselves.
Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935, 61 min.)
Gene Autry returns home as the co-owner of a traveling medicine show after a five-year absence following a quarrel with his father. On their way to town, the troupe finds a badly wounded Harry Brooks, Gene's old friend, in an abandoned shack. Before he loses consciousness, Brooks gasps that he is not guilty of an unspecified crime. The sheriff's posse arrives, but Brooks has hidden.
Gene believes Brooks has been framed when Blaze Williams, a member of the posse, returns later to shoot him. Gene hides the wounded man in the medicine wagon and starts for town. Meanwhile, Blaze tells his boss, Barney Craven, that Brooks is hidden in the wagon. In town, Gene learns that Brooks' crime is the murder of Gene's father. Rushing out to the wagon, Gene finds that Brooks is gone. Thinking his wife, Janet, may have taken him away, Gene heads to the Brooks ranch with his friends Smiley Burnette and McWade.
Craven's men follow Gene. Janet and McWade convince Gene that Brooks is not guilty by telling him that Brooks sold water rights to Gene's father, which Craven wanted, so he killed the older man, framing Brooks. Gene captures Craven's men with the aid of one of his records, and then tricks Craven into rescuing them. Gene and his friends wait for Craven instead and fight to the finish. The culprits are thrown into jail, and Gene finds time to pay attention to the serious courtship of Janet's younger sister.
The Old Corral (1936, 56 min.)
New York nightclub singer Eleanor Spencer is the only witness to a murder committed by her boss, gangster Mike Scarlotti. She flees, but on her way to Los Angeles, she is recognized by Martin Simms, the racketeering owner of the Blue Moon nightclub in Turquoise City. Though she first refuses, he convinces Eleanor to sing at his club by working on her fear of Scarlotti. Sheriff Gene Autry helps Eleanor with her debut by advising her to change her program of torch songs to a repertoire of western favorites. Simms, expecting a reward from Scarlotti, wires him of Eleanor's whereabouts.
When Scarlotti and his gang arrive, Deputy Frog Millhouse recognizes them and warns Gene, who orders Frog and Eleanor to hide. But Scarlotti sees them leave and sets out in pursuit. Gene and the singing O'Keefe brothers, who had earlier been arrested, follow and stampede a herd of steers directly at the gangsters, who were preparing to explode the shack where Frog and Eleanor had taken refuge. The gangsters flee, and all are captured. Gene promises to stay by Eleanor's side forever.
Prairie Moon (1938, 58 min.)
Deputy Sheriff Gene Autry and his pal, Frog Millhouse, are baffled by continued cattle raids, where the stock vanishes into thin air. Unbeknownst to them, Frank Welch, the smug and sanctimonious proprietor of the general store, is head of the gang of cattle rustlers who hide the stolen stock behind a waterfall on the Barton ranch. City gangster Legs Barton, hiding at his ranch, learns the rustlers are using his property for their activities, risking attention to his hideout. He is mortally wounded in a gun battle, and makes a dying request of Gene to look after his three orphaned children.
Gene sends Frog to New York to get the kids, who prove to be little slum toughs. They bitterly resent being taken out West, and are especially venomous toward Gene, since he wears a Deputy Sheriff's badge. Welch, learning of their dislike of Gene, covertly wins them over and promises to let them into his gang. He plans to adopt the boys, so he can get control of the Barton ranch, and carry on his rustling activities undisturbed. When Gene's guardianship proceedings come up before the court, the kids openly declare that they would prefer to become the wards of Welch, and the judge awards him a conditional guardianship.
Gene conspires with the judge to make Welch believe that the boys are not the Barton children. To complete the deception, Gene hires an actress and three kids to claim they are the real Bartons. The judge issues an order for the 'false' Barton children and their guardian to vacate the premises within 24 hours. When he believes they are not the real heirs of the Barton ranch, Welch turns harsh and brutal. Realizing the Gene is a good guy after all, the kids gang up to help him round up the rustlers, and bring them all to justice.
Carolina Moon (1940, 65 min.)
Pals Gene Autry and Frog Millhouse enter the local rodeo to win enough money to buy a ranch. Miss Caroline Stanhope and her father, Colonel Stanhope, have also come to town to enter her thoroughbred horse, Betsy, in the rodeo. The Colonel, swindled by a couple of city slickers, loses over a thousand dollars and begs to turn over Betsy in lieu of cash.
The conmen refuse, and Gene steps in, offering to pay Colonel Stanhope his entire rodeo winnings for the horse so that the Colonel may settle his debt. The Colonel agrees, and promptly drowns his sorrows. Caroline, finding her father in a drunken condition, packs him into the car, shoves Betsy into the trailer and heads back for Carolina. She thinks that Gene is in league with the city slickers and she is determined to thwart the scheme to cheat her father out of his horse. Gene, on the other hand, is equally determined to thwart the Stanhope's scheme to cheat him out of his thousand dollars, and he and Frog go to Carolina to recover either their money or the horse.
They discover that the Stanhopes are honest folk, who, with their neighbors, are hard-pressed by poverty and the threatened foreclosure of their lands. Henry Wheeler, the only solvent plantation owner in Fairfield County, is campaigning to take the planters' lands, where once worthless timber is now valuable. Gene uncovers the plot and urges the planters to hold their land and sell the timber themselves. When Wheeler attempts to block this plan by holding up lumberjacks, preventing them from fulfilling the terms of their contracts, Gene sends out an SOS for cowboys to work as lumberjacks. They cut down the Fairfield County timber, so that the plantation owners, including the Stanhopes, are able to clear their mortgages and still retain their land.
Apache (1954, 87 min.)
Sfter years of bloody fighting with settlers on the American frontier, Apache Chief Geronimo (Monte Blue) is forced to submit to a humiliating surrender. But his fiercest warrior, Massai (Lancaster) refuses to accept defeat. With enormous strength and razor-sharp cunning, Massai battles the relentless U.S. Cavalry, struggling to stay one step ahead of the highly trained soldiers who have sworn to track him down. And as his crusade escalates into a final epic showdown, Massai knows that he must persevere, not only for his life, but also for the pride of his entire race.
Oscar winner Burt Lancaster stars in an action-packed western that pulsates with the power and passion of an Indian war drum. Based on a thrilling true story and featuring masterful direction by Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen) and a powerful screenplay by Oscar winner James R. Webb, Apache explodes with spectacular battle sequences, breathtaking chases and unbridled suspense.
The Hills Run Red (1966, 91 min.)
After the Civil War ends, two soldiers return home with a cache of stolen money. They are caught by Union troops. One escapes, but the other is sent to prison for five years. When he gets out and goes home, he finds that his wife has died in poverty because his partner kept all the money, and is now a major power in the area with an army of deadly gunmen to back him up.