Roy Rogers in TruColor and Uncut (1 Viewer)

[Bob Gu]

Thanks for the Paramount John Wayne info, Ray. I'll have to go over a list of Wayne films and pick out my must haves, concentrating on the Paramounts. I am not that interested in the early Waynes collecting-wise, and will settle for the ones I have on the two 50 movie Mill Creek sets I have. Confusing the issue on those are the re-titled colorized editions. I do have to say, when I first saw some of those early Waynes on TV, I was pretty amazed at some of the stunts. Usually it was Yakima Canutt doubling Wayne and chasing himself as the bad-guy, but sometimes it really looked like Wayne doing some dangerous looking stunts.
Richard, Pat Brady was Roy's "comical side-kick" as he was introduced in the opening of Roy's TV show. He also appeared in the Rogers Republics as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, playing a base fiddle, and as extra comic relief with Gabby Hayes and Andy Devine, graduating to solo comic relief in some of the Trucolors. Bob Nolan and Shug Fisher, also of the Pioneers, were also used sometimes as extra comic relief. Roy's strangest side-kick was comedian Pinky Lee in the last three Roy Rogers movies.. I have not seen those yet.
Ray, I can't say I dislike Pat Brady, he's part of that pleasant nostalgic haze when I think back to watching The Roy Rogers Show and Sky King back-to- back on Saturday Morning TV.
Steve, Sheila Ryan must of had a pretty good sense of humor. Pat Buttram was very funny on those Melody Ranch Theater segments that were on the Image Gene Autry DVDs.

 

[JoeDoakes]

pat brady appeared in the latter RR films and on the tv show. he drove a jeep named nelliebelle, worked in Dale's kitchen, and wore an apron. His catchphrase was "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Nelliebelllllllllllllllllle"

 

[JoeDoakes]

Of course everyone has their favorite sidekicks. I didn't mean to disrespect anyone's choices.

 

[Steve...O]

Hi Ray - no disrespect taken. You're absolutely right; everyone has their favorites (and not so favorites). I wonder where Sterling Holloway is on most people's lists? This has been a great discussion which I've enjoyed reading.

It is apparent that the Autry films were better maintained over the years than the Rogers films. Roy's heirs have said that he didn't always see the long term value of these and consequently made some unfortunate choices. One of those choices was selling off the rights (and prints) to his TV series to a private collector. This is why the series is now in public domain with 16mm prints used as video sources. Gene on the other hand took very good care of his films and his estate has worked to get his movies out. They just a deal with Timeless to release more movies and a box set of his TV series.

 

[Bob Gu]

Gene Autry: Back In The DVD Player Again!!! Great find Steve! You left a word out of your last sentence, which could of been "made" or "need". Luckily from watching all these old westerns, I was able to follow the trail over to GeneAutry.com and read the news item about the Timeless-Gene Autry deal. This is your scoop Steve, you should start threads on this big news, in this section and the TV on DVD section. (Feel free to use my first sentence as the headline.)
When the Autry DVDs were coming from Image, they released two titles every other month and towards the end they re-released some in, less expensive per movie, four packs. They will be starting up in 2011 with the previously unreleased titles. I think they released 30 something Autry features and have another 50 something to go. I wonder what kind of release schedule they will have. The TV show interests me as I think 14 episodes of the 91 were filmed in color.
Getting back to side-kicks, part of the fun of the formula of the B-Westerns were the side-kicks, and it is fun to complain about them too. They functioned to make the hero seem, smarter, better looking, and more charitable, for keeping the sometimes less than helpful side-kicks around.
The strangest, side-kick configuration was in the series of Gene Autry movies, where Smilely "Frog Millhouse" Burnette had a dress-a-like younger brother called "Tadpole", who rode a pony version of Smiley's horse "Ring-Eye. That was positively surreal.

 

[PaulaJ]

Encore Westerns has been running "digitally restored" Gene Autry westerns -- I don't know if what they're showing is a preview of what's coming on DVD, but they do look quite good!

 

[Richard--W]

Roy Rogers debut as a singing cowboy star, Under Western Stars (1938) is listed at 65-67 minutes complete, and at 53-4 minutes edited for television.

Alpha Video is pushing their recent release of this title, claiming it is uncut. But is it? Has anyone seen it?

Also, is it true that Alpha Video added watermarks to this DVD and all their latest releases?

Shortly I will start a thread to discuss silent westerns and early 1930s westerns. I've been gathering the films of William S. Hart, other silent western stars, and the early talkies and serials. No doubt some singing cowboy DVD's will come up in the thread. Everyone is invited to throw in their two bits.

 

[DeWilson]

Originally Posted by Steve...O
Roy's heirs have said that he didn't always see the long term value of these and consequently made some unfortunate choices. One of those choices was selling off the rights (and prints) to his TV series to a private collector. This is why the series is now in public domain with 16mm prints used as video sources.

UPA (Now part of CLASSIC MEDIA) put together a TV package of THE ROY ROGERS SHOW in the late 1980's with new wraparounds by Roy. All 100 episodes are in the package. RTV's "PB&J" Channel will be running these. The shows are edited.

 

[Richard--W]

Sinister Cinema offers the following Rog Rogers films transferred from 16mm prints, unless otherwise noted, uncut:

1938 Under Western Stars
1941 Red River Valley
1942 Romance On the Range
1942 Sunset Serenade --35mm
1943 Idaho -- 35mm
1943 King of the Cowboys
1943 Song of Texas
1944 Lights of Old Santa Fe -- 35mm
1944 Song of Nevada
1944 Yellow Rose of Texas
1945 Bells of Rosarita
1945 Utah
1946 Home in Oklahoma
1946 My Pal, Trigger
1946 Roll On Texas Moon -- 35mm
1947 Bells of San Angelo -- in TruColor
1948 Eyes of Texas -- should be in TruColor, probably monochrome
1948 Grand Canyon Trail -- should be in TruColor, probably in monochrome
1948 Under California Stars -- in TruColor
1951 Heart of the Rockies -- available only in VHS

The only one I've seen so far is Under Western Stars (1938) which is about the same quality as the TCM and Westerns Channel broadcasts.

Comet Video lists the following Roy Rogers films as uncut. I suspect more of the TruColor titles are in color although not listed as such:

1938 UNDER WESTERN STARS 65m (uncut)
1942 ROMANCE ON THE RANGE 63m (uncut)
1942 SUNSET SERENADE 58m (uncut)
1943 IDAHO 70m (uncut)
1943 KING OF THE COWBOYS 67m (uncut)
1944 COWBOY AND THE SENORITA 77m (uncut)
1944 HANDS ACROSS THE BORDER 73m (uncut)
1944 LIGHTS OF OLD SANTA FE 78m (uncut)
1944 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY 74m (uncut)
1944 SONG OF NEVADA 75m (uncut)
1944 YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS, THE 69m (uncut)
1945 ALONG THE NAVAJO TRAIL 66m (uncut)
1945 BELLS OF ROSARITA 68m (uncut)
1945 DON'T FENCE ME IN 71m (uncut)
1945 UTAH 72m (uncut)
1946 HELDORADO 70m (uncut)
1946 HOME IN OKLAHOMA 72m (uncut)
1946 MY PAL, TRIGGER 79m (uncut)
1946 ROLL ON, TEXAS MOON 67m (uncut)
1946 SONG OF ARIZONA 68m (uncut)
1946 UNDER NEVADA SKIES 69m (uncut)
1947 APACHE ROSE 75m (uncut)
1947 BELLS OF SAN ANGELO 75m (c) (uncut)
1947 ON THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL 75m (uncut)
1947 SPRINGTIME IN THE SIERRAS 75m (uncut)
1948 EYES OF TEXAS 70m (uncut)
1948 FAR FRONTIER, THE 67m (uncut)
1948 GAY RANCHERO, THE 72m (uncut)
1948 GRAND CANYON TRAIL 67m (uncut)
1948 NIGHT TIME IN NEVADA 67m (b/w) (uncut)
1948 UNDER CALIFORNIA STARS 70m (c)(uncut)
1949 DOWN DAKOTA WAY 67m (c) (uncut)
1949 GOLDEN STALLION, THE 67m (c) (uncut)
1949 SUSANNA PASS 67m (c) (uncut)
1950 BELLS OF CORONADO 67m (c) (uncut)
1950 NORTH OF THE GREAT DIVIDE (c) 67m (uncut)
1950 TRIGGER, JR. 67m (color/uncut)
1950 SUNSET IN THE WEST 67m (c) (uncut)
1950 TWILIGHT IN THE SIERRAS 67m (c) (uncut)
1951 HEART OF THE ROCKIES 67m (uncut)
1951 IN OLD AMARILLO 67m (uncut)
1951 PALS OF THE GOLDEN WEST 67m (uncut)
1951 SOUTH OF CALIENTE 67m (uncut)
1951 SPOILERS OF THE PLAINS 68m (uncut)
1951 TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD 67m (c) (uncut)

 

[Bob Gu]

Thanks for the lists, Richard. Sinister seems to have added a few more uncut Roy Rogers titles since the last time I looked. Back when I bought the Sinister uncut Rogers I have now, there were some that were VHS only. So I have to decide if I want to upgrade to Sinister DVD-R or wait and see if they show up with Alpha uncut on DVD.
I was able to check my Alpha 65 minute "Under Western Stars", and it does have the Alpha watermark in the top right corner during the opening and closing credits. On these small company releases, I don't really look for the logos and I am happier if they are not there, but not surprised when they are. Sinister has an "SC" popping up on their releases too sometimes.
There was an Alpha $3.99 sale, that ends at 11:59 PM tonight, at oldies.com and I picked up a couple of Rogers titles that I didn't have on DVD or VHS. I picked up one of those Goodtimes Rogers titles too. But again, I am confused by the combined running times. One title, that I hope is uncut, has a Roy Rogers TV episode as an extra which means the movie is probably a 53 minute version. Dad Blast It!
I am interested in getting the uncut "Romance on the Range", an upgrade from the 53 minute Republic Home Video VHS version. This one has some peppy songs and co-stars funny Sally Payne and Linda Hayes, (The mother of Cathy Lee Crosby, the other Wonder Woman).

 

[Richard--W]

I also have a Roy Rogers to-buy list pending. I wish I knew in advance how the Alphas compared to the Sinisters to the Comets. Wish I could advise you on whether or not to upgrade Sinister Cinema's old VHS to new DVD-R. I heard, or read, somewhere that Sinister had upgraded their equipment and is sending out a better quality product than they used to. But I don't know their product well enough. Perhaps someone can confirm? Under Western Stars is respectable, however. So I decided to take a chance rather than not see the films. I just bought a dozen early-talkie westerns from Sinister, non-Rogers and non-musicals:

1930 Land of Missing Men (Tiffany) with Bob Steele.
1931 Arizona Terror (Tiffany) with Ken Maynard
1931 God's Country and the Man (Syndicate) with Tom Tyler.
1931 A Rider of the Plains (Syndicate) with Tom Tyler.
1931 The Sunrise Trail (Amity) with Bob Steele.
1932 Beyond the Rockies (Pathe) with Tom Keene, produced by David O. Selznick.
1932 Between Fighting Men (World Wide) with Ken Maynard.
1932 Rider of Death Valley (Universal) with Tom Mix.
1932 South of Santa Fe (World Wide) with Bob Steele. directed by Ford's dp Bert Glennon.
1933 Zane Grey's Smoke Lightning (Fox) with George O'Brien.
1935 Gunfire (Resolute) with Rex Bell.
1935 Zane Grey's Thunder Mountain (Fox) with George O'Brien.

We'll see what I think of those before I pay for the next batch. As you may have surmised, I thought it was time to catch up with early Zane Grey adaptations. His influence was everywhere and adaptations persisted for thirty years. I bought the following from Virgil Films VHS:

1933 The Thundering Herd aka Buffalo Stampede
1937 Thunder Trail
1938 The Mysterious Rider

which were not included in the Zane Grey box-sets released by LionsGate a couple of years ago.
I also bought the following DVD-R's from collector sites:

1914 The Virginian (Paramount) with Dustin Farnum, directed by Cecil B. Demille.
1917 Straight Shooting (Universal) with Harry Carey, directed by John Ford.
1923 The Virginian (Preferred Pictures) with Kenneth Arlan.
1925 Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage (Fox) with Tom Mix.
1927 The Last Trail (Fox) with Tom Mix.
1931 Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage (Paramount) with George O'Brien.
1931 Zane Grey's The Rainbow Trail (Paramount) with George O'Brien.
1932 Zane Grey's Robbers' Roost (Paramount) with George O'Brien.
1932 Law and Order (Universal) with Harry Carey and Richard Dix (a Wyatt Earp spin).
1935 The Arizonian (RKO) with Richard Dix (a Wyatt Earp spin).
1936 Ramona (Fox) in Technicolor
1941 Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage (Fox) with George Montgomery.

Need I add that most of the above were profoundly influential films when they were new. Today they still hold up as superior films, if a bit creaky, and outstanding westerns. That they should fall out of circulation and out of national memory is nothing short of an artistic crime.

I'm particularly impressed with George O'Brien's literate and muscular westerns.

Also incoming are the early Cisco Kid films starring, alternately, Warner Baxter (3 films 1928-39), Cesar Romero (6 films 1940-43), and Gilbert Roland (6 films (1946-47).

We discussed the gem Zorro - The Bold Caballero (Republic, 1936) in the thread above. Toss your Alpha DVD in the ash can and buy yourself the official Republic VHS. One can't complain about the price:

http://www.amazon.com/Zorro-Bold-Caballero-Robert-Livingston/dp/0782009379/ref=pd_bxgy_v_img_a

or the quality. The VHS is a proper restoration and a proper transfer, clean and sharp with nicely balanced color and excellent resolution (for a VHS). In comparison, the Alpha DVD looks as if it were videotaped off a projection on a dirty sheet. An equally delightful gem of a film, The Phantom of Santa Fe (1936), shot in Magnacolor, is available from both Sinister Cinema and Alpha. The Alpha edition has better color saturation, but it's a badly worn print. The first reel is almost unwatchable. Sinister Cinema's DVD-R is cleaner and sharper even though it doesn't offer as much color.

Next time Alpha has a sale like that post a notice here, will you? I always miss these sales.

Romance On the Range (Republic, 1942) is also on my to-buy list on the next go-round. Let us know how it compares to the other Roy Rogers editons you have.

No matter how old a movie is, if I haven't seen it yet, it's new.

 

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by Bob Gu
... and you gotta love those Alpha covers, which, of course, are all avaliable as posters.

The artist who paints those covers is really talented, no question about it. He has a thing for pastels, which is fine for most movies, but pastels look peculiar on a western poster / cover. Let's hope he discovers earth colors soon. The head honcho at Alpha should send him a new box of paints.

 

[Bob Gu]

Richard, I ordered that restored VHS "Bold Caballero". I wonder how many more Republic Home Video western releases from the 90's are out there to be uncovered?
I received my latest batch of $3.99 Alpha Roy Rogers. The picture quality on them was not anything to get excited about but some of were uncut:
"Bells of Rosarita" -1945 was 67 min 46 sec (68 min reference book time). I also have this uncut from Sinister Cinema on VHS. The Alpha DVD and the Sinister tape look to be from the same British print. Both are pretty rough looking. This is a good Roy Rogers movie where Roy plays Roy Rogers, the movie cowboy, who decides to help Dale and Gabby save their western Circus with the help of other Republic western stars: Wild Bill Elliott, Alan "Rocky Lane", Sunset Carson, Bob Livingston, and Don "Red" Barry.
"Song of Arizona"-1946 was 67 min 42 sec (68 min ref book, maybe they round up). I also had this on public domain VHS in a 53 minute version. Lots of music in this including a Halloween number. The Alpha print on DVD did not have a Republic logo at the beginning of the movie but did have a "THE END A Republic Production" appear onscreen over Roy and Dale riding off. My VHS short version had a Republic logo at the beginning and a generic western "The End" tacked on the end of the movie. There is an interesting stunt at the end of the movie, where Roy (stuntman of course) leaps from Trigger onto the back of the horse and rider he is chasing. Roy seems to be losing as they fight and Roy slips down and releases the saddle cinch and both men tumble off the running horse. This stunt is also seen in an episode of Disney's Zorro TV series with Zorro chasing the badguy. Now we know that the Canutts and other Republic stuntmen worked on Zorro. So it is quite possible that the same two stuntmen may have done the stunt in both the Rogers movie and Zorro. I know that I spotted the badguy stuntman/actor in that Zorro episode in numerous Roy Rogers westerns as a younger fellow.
Also uncut were "Eyes of Texas"-1948 70 min 20 sec (70 min ref book time) and "Grand Canyon Trail"-1948 66 min 29 sec (67 min ref book time) released as an Alpha double feature. Both titles are Black and White versions of Trucolor films. Although I had "Eyes" ,slightly nicer, on collector DVD-R I wanted to get "Grand Canyon Trail' on DVD. I had "Grand Canyon Trail" on Sinister VHS. Again both the Alpha DVD and Sinister VHS for "Grand Canyon Trail" look like they may have been from the same rough print, with the Sinister showing less damage but the Alpha looking a little better to my eye, grey-scale-wise.
I am not familiar with George O'Brien westerns. One of his movies is on that Mill Creek set, so I will take a look.

 

[Richard--W]

You've talked me into buying more Alpha DVD's, Bob. Thanks for reviewing those titles.
Sinister Cinema lists an "uncut special edition" of San Fernando Valley (1945) among its new releases:

http://store.sinistercinema.com/prostores/servlet/Detail?no=18969

 

[Bob Gu]

I wonder if Sinister Cinema will let me trade in their cut version, I bought a few months ago for this new uncut edition of "San Fernando Valley"? Probably not, but I do have the uncut Republic Home Video VHS.
I think Sinister's buy six get one free sale is still going on so I may get an order together for some more Roy Rogers uncut. Richard, are you sure Sinister's Roy Rogers "Red River Valley" is uncut? I see where Sinister's Gene Autry "Red River Valley" is listed as uncut but not the Rogers. I need to get Roy's "Red River Valley" anyway since it's a Rogers title I don''t have, and it's the first Rogers with the Sons of the Pioneers.
I added Sinister's uncut "Song Of Nevada" 1944 to an Amazon order along with the "Heldorado" 1946/ "In Old Cheyenne" 1941 double feature from Roan. (DeepDiscount cancelled my "Heldorado" order.) The "Heldorado"/ "In Old Cheyenne" double feature may be going out of print as my copy actually came from a Amazon Marketplace seller fulfilled by Amazon. It may still be available direct from the Roan site.
"Song Of Nevada" has a reference book run time of 75 minutes and the "uncut" Sinister version is 72:05 minutes. A poster at IMDB actually names the two songs that are still missing. I had the 53 minute version from Alpha and it's a real eye opener to see Sinister's longer version with most of the missing bits intact. Sinister's SC watermark comes up sometimes, usually during the musical numbers that are missing from the shorter version. This is a very good Rogers musical with plenty of comedy, and musical numbers with Roy, Dale Evans, Mary Lee, The Sons of the Pioneers, and the Republic dancing girls. Mary Lee is a wonderful singer and comic presence and this is her last movie. She apparently retired when she got married. The print has two title cards, the original "Republic Pictures Presents" above the title and a second where (A Republic Production) appears below the title.
"Heldorado" has a reference book time of 70 minutes and the Roan edition came in close enough at 69:44 minutes. The point of interest in Heldorado is that some are the parade seqences are from an actual appearance of Roy, Dale, and the Pioneers at an actual Heldorado celebration in Las Vegas, plus it's another fine fun Rogers movie. The "In Old Cheyenne" print was 53 minutes and looked a little sharper than the Aplha 53 minute edition.

 

[Bob Gu]

KING OF THE COWBOYS-1943 had two versions during World War II, because of concerns that the domestic sabotage plot would be disturbing to servicemen shown the film, according to "Republic Confidential Vol 2, by Jack Mathis. Richard Hurst's book, "Republic Studios: Between Poverty Row and the Majors", states that the U.S. Office of War Information was also concerned about showing industrial and civic leaders as the bad guys or enemy agents in movies, as being bad for morale.
"Republic Confidential Vol 2 also says, in the the original version of "King of the Cowboys", there were addtional scenes of the destruction of a second warehouse and a bridge which were replaced by more music from the Sons of the Pioneers. These extra scenes of domestic sabotage do not appear in the two version of "King of the Cowboys" I have.
Lloyd Corrigan plays the head saboteur "Kraley" in both versions I have, but in one "Kraley" is the Governor's secretary, and in the other version "Kraley" is a railroad executive, sitting with some other bigwigs in the Governor's office discussing the sabotage problem with the Governor. Both characters are able to learn the Governor's anti-sabotage plans and pass them on to the gang of saboteurs. In the Governor's secretary version a different actor plays a railroad executive. There are other scene differences between the two versions also.
The "King of the Cowboys" version with Corrigan as the Governor's secretary is the one that was released on VHS in 1991 by Republic Home Video in a 53 minute cut version. (67 minute uncut runtime)
A 67 minute uncut version of "King of the Cowboys", with Corrigan as the railroad executive, was released by Sinister Cinema on VHS. When I bought the Sinister tape years ago, I noticed it was missing some scenes that were on the Republic cut release and I thought Sinister's print was cut, but now, after viewing both tapes recently, and doing a little research, I realize there are at least two different versions of "King of the Cowboys".
I am not quite sure which is the revised version. In the version where Corrigan is the Governor's secretary, we see Smilely Burnett give him tickets to Roy Rogers' show. The next scene shows Corrigan talking to his gang in a garage about the tickets.
In the version with Corrigan as the railroad executive we don't see him get the tickets, but the scene in the garage is exactly the same, and this is where we first see Corrigan's character "Kraley" appear.
Amazing that, they would feel the need to censor a Roy Rogers movie!

 

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Richard--W
I bought Mill Creek's 20-movie John Wayne set because it collects most of his 1930s programmers. The quality turned out to be so bad it was hardly worth paying $5 at Walmart. I need to find his 1930s programmers in good quality with the original soundtracks. There are many different editions. Any suggestions?

I got an even cheaper price on this, $2.00 at Target, though it only included 16 movies, not 20. Watched THE MAN FROM UTAH last night and thought that after some unsettled tape tracking problems in the beginning, the PQ was not bad at all as the film went on and I'm watching it on a 62 inch screen. But, as alluded to by Richard, the original soundtrack score was removed, replaced with jarringly inappropriate synthesizer music. I can understand the concerns with music copyrights, but I wish they had just left off all the music entirely rather than trying to squeeze whatever they could cheaply find to replace it. Fortunately, there wasn't much music in the film to begin with, but still, everything would have worked just fine if they had left it with no music.

I wonder how many other titles in this set have music replacement? I'm hoping not too many, though for $2.00 I can't complain too much, haha. Does anyone know if these were released anywhere else with the original music intact?

 

[John Sparks]

Not to derail this thread, but if you're into Hopalong Cassidy, then look no more. Amazon.com has all 66 movies for $33. That's quite a steal from almost $80 that it used to be!!! I collected all of the films except about 10 that were on the Image double features. What eBay was asking, some for over $50 was way to rich for my pocket book, so I resigned myself to not seeing those 10. Then they came out with this box set of all 66. They're the same prints that they used for all the single, double and box sets in the past, but it was selling for $80. There was no way I was going to spend that much money for 10 films.

Well, I ordered the 66 film box set and now my collection is complete, along with all the TV episodes. I'll have to get back to my Roy Rogers collection one of these days. Now to sell the spare ones I have and hope to make some loose change.

Also, they have "The LOne Ranger" season 1 and 2 for $30. It was going for over $75...such deals!

 

[Professor Echo]

Does anyone know if the Good Times versions of SONS OF THE PIONEERS and SUNSET IN EL DORADO are complete and uncut? A comment on Amazon says EL DORADO is cut, but that there may not be any uncut prints left of it anywhere? Is this true?

 

[Bob Gu]

I only have the Good Times DVD edition of "Spoilers of the Plains", 1951. The runtime on the case is 63 minutes. But that time also includes the Happy Trails Theater segment with Roy and Dale, and the actual runtime of the feature is 54:27 minutes. I assume that all the Happy Trails/Good Times releases may be in that same situation since they ran on TV in a particular time-slot, I am guessing a 90 minute slot, with 63 minutes of entertainment content and 27 minutes of commercials. Maybe someone else has information on other Happy Trails/GoodTimes titles' runtimes. (The correct runtime for "Spoilers of the Plains" is 67 minutes. Spoilers is the first of the last five Roy Rogers movies which were made in black and white, after the nineteen Trucolors. There are some pretty nifty rocket models featured, flown by the Lydeckers.)
The story goes that, in 1948, Republic edited all the Rogers movies from "Under Western Stars", '38 to "The Far Frontier", '47 to 53:10 minutes for TV. The story also says, the original negatives were cut to the shorter runtime in the process used to make the 16mm TV syndication prints, with the unused footage thrown away!! MCA aquired the TV rights in the fifties and cut the films to 51 minutes.
But you have to wonder, what happened to all the 35mm theatrical release prints, there were hundreds of them for each film?? It's hard to believe they all disintegrated. They might still be deep in Paramount's Republic vault, perceived as having no value. Witness the pristine Trucolor prints Republic Home Video used for the '98 release of "Sunset in the West" and the DVD co-release with Lion's Gate of "The Bells of Coronado".
Republic Pictures had a 16mm rental and sales department, servicing groups and individuals. These films, in collector's hands, are where the longer or uncut versions of the Roy Rogers 1938-47 movies are sourced from.
All the '48-'51 Rogers releases were 67 minutes and most seem to be out there, uncut, nine Trucolors from Republic Home Video on VHS, with the repeat of "Bells of Coronado" on DVD, and the rest on the collector market in B&W. As we see with the Happy Trails/Goodtimes releases, there are cut versions of the "48-'51 releases out there too.