Gene Autry Opens The Paintbox

Cinecolor Enhances The Big Sombrero (1949)

I'm all for restoration, but it looks like someone's monkeyed with this Cinecolor Gene Autry to correct once limited hues and introduce bright blues into limited equation of that revered (by pic geeks) process. Reminds me a little of Warners juicing up their DVD for Mystery Of The Wax Museum in order to compensate limits of two-color Technicolor so beloved by purists. Do I carp over triviality? --- may-be, but that's nature of nit-picking Greenbriar. The Big Sombrero at least looks a million, if sneakily come by, and Retroplex viewership will obviously prefer it to dominating greens Cinecolor entailed, but what of the movie? It's frankly a size small hat, punk among Gene's litter for dearth of action and yak-yak over who controls what rancho. Autry does make with the music, plenty more than typical, and swim pool segments allow display of Elena Verdugo, fiery senorita of this and other B's. GA overspent on The Big Sombrero and so put brakes on further color lensing, this in deference to profit from horse-sits and maintaining his lucrative lead among series cowboys.