Ride 'Em Cowboy is a 1942 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. The supporting cast features Dick Foran, Anne Gwynne, Johnny Mack Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Samuel S. Hinds, Douglas Dumbrille and Morris Ankrum, and the movie was directed by Arthur Lubin.
Plot[]
The author of best-selling western novels, Bronco Bob Mitchell, has never set foot in the west. A newspaper article has exposed this fact to his fans, and his image is suffering because of it. He decides to make an appearance at a Long Island charity rodeo to bolster his image. When a steer escapes while he is riding a horse nearby, he is thrown. Not knowing what to do, a cowgirl, Anne Shaw, comes to his rescue and saves his life by bulldogging the steer.
During the rescue, she is injured and cannot compete and loses her chance to obtain the $10,000 prize. Although Bob is grateful, she quickly becomes angry due to his city slicker hotshot personality and returns to her father's dude ranch in Arizona. Bob follows her with the hopes of making amends, and actually learns how to be a real cowboy.
Meanwhile, Willoughby and Duke are vendors at the rodeo. They are not very good at their job, and soon cause enough havoc that they hide from their boss. Their hiding place winds up being a cattle car and they soon find themselves on their way out west. When they arrive, Willoughby accidentally shoots an arrow into an Indian tepee. Custom says that this is a proposal, but Willoughby and Duke soon run in fear when the Indian maiden inside the tent turns out to be plump and unattractive. They wind up at the same Dude ranch that Anne and Bob are at, and soon given jobs by the foreman, Alabam.
Anne concedes and begins to instruct Bob on the ways of cowboy life, while Willoughby and Duke are still menaced by the Indians. Eventually Anne decides that Bob has improved enough to enter him on their team at the state rodeo championship. Unfortunately a gambler, Ace Henderson, has made large bets against the ranch and has his gang kidnap Bob and Alabam. Willoughby and Duke unwittingly come to the rescue while they are running from the Indians, and everyone returns to the rodeo in time. Bob, finally a true cowboy, rides a bronco long enough to win the championship. The Indians catch up to Willoughby there, but as a joke, his bride turns out to be Duke.
Cast[]
Bud Abbott as Duke Lou Costello as Willoughby Dick Foran as Bronco Bob Mitchell Anne Gwynne as Anne Shaw Johnny Mack Brown as Alabam' Brewster Judd McMichael as Tom (as The Merry Macs) Ted McMichael as Harry (as The Merry Macs) Joe McMichael as Dick (as The Merry Macs) Mary Lou Cook as Dotty Davis (as The Merry Macs) Ella Fitzgerald as Ruby Samuel S. Hinds as Sam Shaw Douglass Dumbrille as Jake Rainwater Morris Ankrum as Ace Anderson