ROTOR OATER

Aviation &/or obscure western movie geeks, be advised: Friday at 8 p.m. EST Turner Classic Movies shows Under Mexicali Stars, a 1950 yarn from Republic Studios, starring Rex Allen (“The Arizona Cowboy”) and his sidekick Homer (Buddy Ebsen), this time on the trail of nefarious counterfeiters. It’s a perfectly ordinary singing-cowboy programmer of the period, with one exception—a helicopter, at that time a newfangled contraption, plays a major role.

The villains use what appears to be a Hiller UH12A to purloin wagonloads of gold without a trace, little knowing that on one such run the intrepid Rex (in reality one of Republic’s gang of crazed stuntmen, no doubt) has grabbed hold of the aircraft’s wheelgear and hitched a ride to their hideout.

Homer, meanwhile, unravels the mystery to the authorities in this burst of Shakespearean exposition: “It explains the vanishing footprints…How they stole the gold without leavin’ a trace…With those things you don’t even have to touch the ground, so no wheelprints!” During the climactic scenes, the villains use the craft to pursue our hero, and when Rex at last gets the upper hand, the final baddie standing makes a desperate dash for the craft before Rex flattens him.

This all-but-forgotten little horse opera was released in 1950, barely four years after the Bell 47 first hit the civilian market. It may be one of the first feature films in which a helicopter is a crucial plot point.

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