Comin' Round the Mountain is a 1936 Western film directed by Mack V. Wright and starring Gene Autry, Ann Rutherford, and Smiley Burnette. Based on a story by Oliver Drake, the film is about a Pony Express rider who is robbed and left to die in the desert, where he is saved by a wild horse he captures and later uses to round up other horses to be used in the race for a government contract. Plot While delivering mail in California in 1880, Pony Express rider Gene Autry (Gene Autry) is ambushed by two men who steal his saddlebags and leave him to die in the desert. In addition to the mail, the saddlebags contain money being sent to ranch owner Dolores Moreno (Ann Rutherford) who desperately needs the funds to save her land from being sold for back taxes. At Dolores' Vista Grande ranch, Marshal John Hawkins (Robert McKenzie) posts a notice that the ranch will soon be auctioned off. After selling her cattle to raise the necessary money for the taxes, Dolores plans to breed horses, using a wild stallion named El Diablo to start a good bloodline. One of her neighboring ranchers, Matt Ford (LeRoy Mason), watches as Dolores' men try to break the stallion. Ford, who has been breeding thoroughbreds, expects to sell his horses to Pony Express horse buyer Caldwell (Raymond Brown). He offers to loan Dolores money if her cattle money does not arrive in time. She doesn't know that it was Ford who sent his henchmen, Slim and Butch, to steal her money from the Pony Express rider so she would be forced to marry him and he could gain control of her ranch. After breaking free, El Diablo bolts into the desert, where the lariat around his neck gets caught in some rocks. Gene comes across the wild stallion and frees him. The next day he is able to break the stallion to the saddle and rides him to the Vista Grande ranch, where he tells Dolores and Caldwell about the robbery. Knowing the thieves must have had knowledge of the money in those saddlebags, Gene grows suspicious of Ford. He asks Caldwell to be relieved of duty while he searches for the culprit. Ford orders Slim and Butch to kill Gene, but their attempt to shoot him fails. Gene tells Dolores that they can raise the money she needs by