Roy Rogers in TruColor and Uncut (4 Viewers)

[Vic Pardo]

Has anyone compiled a list of Trucolor films that are available in legit editions on disc (DVD or Blu-ray)?

 

[Bob Gu]

A list of the Black and White Republics, released on Disc by Kino and Olive would be nice to see, also.

 

[ponset]

I see HERMES PRESS is coming out with a ROY ROGER comic book collection with Alex Toth and John Buscema art.
With an Introduction by Dusty Rogers.
Hard Cover. 256 pages on April 16th 2019.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Alex-Bu...TF8&qid=1546591561&sr=1-4&keywords=roy+rogers

 

[Bob Gu]

Thanks Scott, another book I have to sales resist. I always enjoyed Toth's art and Buscema is a fine artist too. And to see them both in a western comic will be nice, if I weaken and I buy this book.

It is cheaper to buy this direct from Hermes Press and they have a coupon, but they charge tax and a $9.99 shipping fee. $.46 more for Priority Mail. Per order? So maybe not cheaper, unless you buy even more to spread out the postage fee.

The earlier Alex Toth Roy Rogers Book:

Tomorrow morning Sat. Jan. 5, at 8AM to 10AM Eastern Time GRIT will show RED CANYON-1949, a Universal Technicolor western with Howard Duff, Ann Blyth and George Brent. I liked it very much and was able to download it from, YouTube. A very nice upload of the R-2 Blu-Ray, which looked great played back on my TV. I like Duff's hat in this. Reminds me of a Jack Kirby drawn Rawhide Kid hat.

And on Sunday morning, Jan. 6, at 6AM To 8AM Eastern, GRIT is showing, again, MONTANA BELLE with Jane Russell, Scott Brady, and George Brent. This is that interesting Belle Starr western that was filmed at Republic in 2 Color TRUCOLOR in 1948 and sold by the producer to RKO and held for release until 1952.

 

[Bob Gu]

HELDORADO-1946, B&W, 70 min.

The title of the movie is Heldorado with one 'L', but two 'Ls" are used on all the signs and posters in the movie itself.

This is the last Roy Rogers movie for Gabby Hayes. Filmed, partially, on location, at Boulder Dam and the annual Las Vegas Helldorado celebration. Roy and the gang are in the Helldorado parades as themselves and their characters in the movie.

Boulder Dam, constructed between 1931 and 1936, had a name change to, (President Herbert), Hoover Dam, in 1947.

The film also features an unbilled Clayton Moore as a reporter and Brad Dexter, from THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN-1960, billed as Barry Mitchell.

Roy plays a uniformed Nevada State Ranger, who is also available to the local Sheriff for illegal searches to get the goods on Brad Dexter. Dexter is involved in passing unreported currency through the local casino.

Dale is a society girl who gets appointed honorary deputy Sheriff for the Helldorado celebration and decides to investigate when there is a murder.

There is a horse race scavenger hunt which leads to a funny line when Roy discovers Dale locked in a refrigerator. "Did the light go off in there?"

The musical finale has more, on location, footage from the Helldorado Parade. Note, Trigger is chained to the float.

I have the old Roan/Troma DVD, copyrighted 2000. It seems full length at 69:44 min. It has a Republic eagle logo at the beginning, but it has a syndicated print title card. It has the proper 'The End', over the last live action frame of the movie plus the end Republic eagle logo.

The Bob Nolan site has a screen shot up of the theatrical title card, so there might be a theatrical print with the right title card around.

HELDORADO: YouTube 69:44 min.



The Roan edition is a double feature single-sided DVD ,and the second feature is, IN OLD CHEYENNE-1941 in the edited 53 minute version , of the original lost 58 minute version. It has a generic end card and the end technical credits in place, but no logos at either end.. It's a historical Rogers movie with Roy actually playing a character named Steve Blane.

YouTube: OLD CHEYENNE- 53 min, version:

 

[Vic Pardo]

Wow, of all the Roy films I've seen where he's played a federal or state official of some kind, it's quite a surprise to actually see him in a Nevada Ranger uniform in that still from HELDORADO rather than his usual Roy Rogers getup. Now I have to see this movie.

As for IN OLD CHEYENNE, you had me at Joan Woodbury and Sally Payne.

 

[borisfw]

Amazon has up a collection called The Roy Rogers Happy Trail Collection. Its from Mill Creek ,20 films on only 4 discs . It's authorized by The Roy Rogers estate . Claims to be digitally remastered. Dusty Rogers is in on it somehow. Price is right 19.99 retail and is out March 12. Not sure if it will be worth it but i can always hope.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Amazon has up a collection called The Roy Rogers Happy Trail Collection. Its from Mill Creek ,20 films on only 4 discs . It's authorized by The Roy Rogers estate . Claims to be digitally remastered. Dusty Rogers is in on it somehow. Price is right 19.99 retail and is out March 12. Not sure if it will be worth it but i can always hope.

My guess is that this edition will only use the cut versions. Does anyone know more about it?

 

[borisfw]

That would seem like the most obvious result. But any release is worth a look.

 

[Bob Gu]

The listings for this set at Mill Creek and Amazon don't list the movie titles it has.
They do mention the guests interviewed on the Roy and Dale wrap-arounds, for HAPPY TRAILS THEATER. This may be a re-issue of the earlier Mill Creek 20 movie pack, where Amazon does list the movies. Anyone have that one, and care to do a, color or B&W, and runtime run down of those 20?

New release:

Old Mill Creek release:

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Great stuff, Bob! Those old western comics look really cool.

Must confess, though I was a big classic movie and TV fan growing up, I never really got into comics. I liked the few that I saw, and even collected a couple dozen in my late teens, but never really got bit by the collecting bug (just as well, considering my eventual DVD, Blu-Ray and lifetime book collecting!) But these old western comics look like a ton o' fun.

It isn't a Roy Rogers movie, but I did recently watch (for the umpteenth time, as my son is a big Muppets fan) the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans episode from season 3 of The Muppet Show. Though Roy and Dale were in their late 60s at the time, they both look hale and hearty, and sing a number of their signature tunes, including "Skyball Paint," "Deep in the Heart of Texas," and a medley of "Hazy Mountain," "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Happy Trails."

Here's a YouTube clip of the medley that closes this great episode:

 

[borisfw]

I have some of the good times Roy Rogers happy trail releases. I enjoy them mostly for the Roy and Dale reminisces. But if I remember correctly the films were cut. If thats the case ,it’s just a rehash of those , I would probably still bite. Just having all the Happy trails in one set would be worth it to me. Plus with a 19.99 retail I would assume you could get it closer to under 10-15.

 

[Bob Gu]

Frank/borisfw, those interviews would be nice to see. I really enjoy the Gene Autry, Pat Buttram and the guest chats on those Melody Thee-ate-ter, spots on the Autry discs.

Thanks, Jeff, movies, TV, comics, old magazine illustrations, books, especially illustrated books, cheesecake publicity photos, regular publicity pictures....it's all visual arts, and fun. Roy and Dale were big on the variety shows back then, as guests or guest hosts. They even had their own short lived variety show on ABC in 1962.

Here's Roy and Dale on THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE. Stu and Roscoe have the drop on them.

 

[Bob Gu]

APACHE ROSE-1947, 75 min. Roy's first Trucolor.

It's a lost Trucolor . But, it is available in a full length theatrical black and white print on a 2007 DVD from Roan/Troma. The Roan print has the proper 'THE END" and Republic Eagle logos. The print is OK but unfocused in spots. It has some flips and sound dropouts, so you might want to check out an edited version, also.

Roy is an oil wildcatter and Dale is a small cargo ship operator, hauling Roy's drilling equipment. Western vet Terry Frost, in the dark suit above, is the Sheriff.

Russ Vincent, Dale's suitor, owns a likely oil location, with his cousin, Donna (DeMario) Martell.

Vincent also owes the local gambling boat boss, George Meeker, lots of money. Meeker and his henchmen, John Laurenz and Leroy Mason, want the oil and decide to eliminate Donna Martell, to make for less complicated negotiations, with Vincent.

The comedy flows when Dale decides to take Donna's place, with her spot on Spanish accent, after Roy foils a murder attempt on Donna. As usual Roy is not fooled.

Comic actor, Olin (Howland) Howlin has his one shot as Roy's sidekick. Howlin appeared twice as comic deputies in two of Roy's earlier pictures.

It's a shame that the Trucolor version is lost. APACHE ROSE is very colorful, even in B&W, with all the interesting rock formations, open sky, ocean side action scenes, and musical numbers.

APACHE ROSE marks the beginning of the era where Roy started wearing flat crown pointy cowboy hats. These hats seemed more aerodynamic, exciting, and speedier looking, as Roy galloped along, atop Trigger.

Rocky Lane and Monty Hale wore pointy hats too.

Monte Hale's OUT CALIFORNIA WAY-1946 was the first Trucolor after Republic's Magnacolor process. Magnacolor was used for two previous Monte Hale movies and The BOLD CABALLERO-1937. The BOLD CABALLERO was out on restored Republic Home Video in 1998. The BC on YouTube is from a different print Alpha came up with.

OUT CALIFORNIA WAY features guest stars, Roy, Dale, Trigger, Rocky Lane and Don 'Red' Barry. It is a behind the scenes movie, with Monte Hale trying to break into pictures. John Dehner plays the movie star cowboy making a movie. Note Dale is wearing the same outfit she wears in the color HELDORADO parade pictures in post # 265. Don Barry is wearing the all black outfit he wore in THE PLAINSMAN AND THE LADY-1946, a very good Wild Bill Elliott Republic A- western. I'll have to go thru my Allan Lane Red Ryders to see if the scene they show is really in one his movies.

 

[Bert Greene]

It used to kill me when "Apache Rose" showed up on television... a 75-minute COLOR film, chopped down to 54 minutes and rendered in black-and-white. I'm glad we now at least have a complete print in circulation, despite its flaws. But I sure would love to see this film fully restored to its original presentation. Donna Martel, by the way, is still with us. She's attended a number of shows over the years, and was even slated to appear at the Williamsburg Film Festival about three years ago, but she caught a flu-bug and had to cancel out. I always recall her most fondly from "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer" (1949). She also appears in a lot of fun, early-tv fare.

As for Terry Frost, it's amazing the sheer number of films you can spot him in. Admittedly, often small or bit parts. I think for a while he must have been trying to give Tom London a run for his money. Spotted Frost numerous times when watching the "Highway Patrol" dvd-sets, invariably playing the accompanying deputy to Broderick Crawford, when William Boyette wasn't around. Terry Frost was no stranger to film festivals either. I saw him (along with Pierce Lyden, Robert Shayne, and Junior Coghlan) at one of the very early Ray Courts' shows at Beverly Garland's hotel in North Hollywood in the early-90s. I think he passed away not too long after that.

 

[Bob Gu]

It's nice to see prolific henchmen actors like Terry Frost play good guys, once in a while. They are such familiar faces, that even when they are bad guys, they don't seem that bad.

Found some HIGHWAY PATROL color photos. Surprised to see the uniforms are some kind of blue steel grey.

Revisiting KING OF THE COWBOYS:

Here's the old mirror on the road trick. I am not sure about the car on the road, but I'm pretty sure the car going over the cliff is a Lydecker Brothers model.

Lydecker model BOOM!

Dorothea Kent and Peggy Moran

 

[Tony Bensley]

The listings for this set at Mill Creek and Amazon don't list the movie titles it has.
They do mention the guests interviewed on the Roy and Dale wrap-arounds, for HAPPY TRAILS THEATER. This may be a re-issue of the earlier Mill Creek 20 movie pack, where Amazon does list the movies. Anyone have that one, and care to do a, color or B&W, and runtime run down of those 20?

New release:
View attachment 54133

Old Mill Creek release:
View attachment 54134

My Old Mill Creek set from 2006 has this cover:

The Barnes and Noble listing doesn't include the film titles, but oddly enough breaks down each chapter's length on each of the four DVDs.
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-roy-rogers-collection-20-movie-pack/11156569

I confess to having removed the shrink wrap, but have never really got around to properly viewing these! I can only imagine the level of compression artifacts present on the three discs that each contain six Black and White features, totalling well over three hundred minutes on each. At least Mill Creek put the two Color features on a separate disc. I may view those first.

CHEERS!

P.S. I was struck by the back cover 1942 listing for the Color feature, BELLS OF SAN ANGELO. Sure enough, by a bit of googling, I quickly found that according to their Wikpedia pages, the first Trucolor feature wasn't released until 1946, and BELLS OF SAN ANGELO was released in 1947.

Below is my actual back cover for the Roy Rogers 20 Movie Pack, that lists all of the features. Sorry if it's a bit hard to read!

 

[Bob Gu]

Tony, thanks for posting that back case list. I wonder how accurate those run times are? Says they have a 78 minute version of BELLS OF SAN ANGELO. Does it? We have seen those claims before. Which version of KING OF THE COWBOYS does your set have? (see post #209) I see IMDB now lists the long version of KING OF THE COWBOYS as 73 minutes, which might be the run time if you added the alternate scenes from the 67 minute version to the 70 minute version. But since they are alternate scenes that change the story, not deleted scenes, they should not count to extend the run time.

UNDER NEVADA SKIES-1946 68-69 minutes, B&W.

There is a full theatrical print out there, with proper Republic eagle logos and proper THE END over the last scene. I have an uncut generic PD VHS. purchased from Movies Unlimited, long ago. I don't think Republic Home Video ever released this on VHS.

Roy and the Pioneers are radio stars, visiting one of Roy's many hometowns, for the local tribe's Big Pow Wow, which attracts tourists.

There is an actual mystery in this one, including an unknown killer, plus a McGuffin, everyone is after!

Dale plays an aspiring singer, but she has an agenda involving her dead father's partner, Leyland Hodgson. Douglas Dumbrille, Rudolph Anders, and Leroy Mason are after the McGuffin, too. And what is Tristram Coffin up to?

Gabby runs the local clock shop and is also the acting Sheriff. George J. Lewis is the hep cat Chief, playing the buckskin bit for the rubes coming to the Pow Wow.

Chief George J. Lewis in his after hours duds.

There is a big shootout at the end with Roy and Lewis, leading his tribe, to encircle the bad guys' ranch house.

Iron Eyes Cody on the left below:

George J. Lewis is best known as Don Diego's dad in the Disney Zorro series, with Guy Williams and Charles Korvin.

Lewis was the male lead in the Republic serial, ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP, with Linda Stirling as, 'The Black Whip', a female Zorro type. But since, in the story, it was not known that 'The Black Whip' was a woman, Lewis got to wear the 'Whip' outfit too.

Linda Stirling as, 'The Tiger Woman', in another Republic Serial, and Linda Stirling as Linda Stirling:

Tristram Coffin specialized in smooth villains. But he got to play a tough good guy in the 50s TV western 26 MEN. Coffin was also the first Republic serial Rocketman in THE KING OF THE ROCKETMEN.

 

[Bob Gu]

Tris Coffin in KING OF THE ROCKETMEN:

"George, why do you have top billing, when I'm playing the title character?"

Back to UNDER NEVADA SKIES:

 

[Bert Greene]

Hoo-boy. Linda Stirling. Oh how I'd love to have all her Republic serials in sharp Blu-ray quality, with "Manhunt on Mystery Island" at the forefront. Plus, her film with Sunset Carson, "Santa Fe Saddlemates" (1945), which she cited as her favorite. Speaking of George J. Lewis, Stirling said how very friendly and helpful he was (along with Duncan Renaldo) in coaching her in film-acting techniques in her first big role in "The Tiger Woman" serial. She had some stage experience (although primarily a model), but was new to movies. Her co-star, Allan Lane, was a notorious up-stager, and more hindrance than help.

It was always amusing to me the top-level prominence, if not abject love, that b-western fandom gave to the many 'villain' actors. I had several friends (all deceased now) with whom I used to visit with regularly, to trade tapes and shoot the bull about old westerns/serials and such, even though I was generationally much younger than them. But I swear, there was always more passion, affection, and discussion-time spent on the 'bad-guys'... Roy Barcroft, LeRoy Mason, Harry Woods, Charlie King, Fred Kohler, Bob Kortman, Kenne Duncan, etc. In fact, I recall an old-duffer pal who just absolutely adored Roy Barcroft. So, when I was out in California, and ran into a little 8x10 still of Barcroft (not even an original) at Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee for a dollar, on a quick whim I purchased it and mailed it to my friend, as just a little minor token to brighten his day. Months later, I visited my friend at his little apartment, and found he'd framed the darned thing and given it a prime, choice spot on his living room wall! Yep, a picture of an unshaven, black-hatted Barcroft sporting a mean-looking glare, right there, immediately greeting every visitor and caller he had.

Ranking right below the villain class with these guys were the many fetching leading-ladies of the b-westerns... Linda Stirling, Iris Meredith, Luana Walters, Peggy Stewart, Lynne Roberts, Jennifer Holt, and so many others. Always the subject of endless discussions back then, along with the villains. The actual 'cowboy stars' came in third place! Actually, the leading-lady was often the determining factor in which vhs-movie some of these gents would order. I can't knock it, because I sometimes find myself in the same boat nowadays. Indeed, if I were to purchase a copy of the aforementioned "Santa Fe Saddlemates," it would be because of Linda Stirling, not old mumble-mouthed Sunset Carson. I had plans to see Stirling when she was at the western fair in Knoxville (around '93 or '94), but I had to cancel out at the last minute. A friend got me her autographed photo, while his wife used her camcorder and taped the panel discussion which included Stirling, Penny Edwards, Helen Talbot, Peggy Stewart, with director William Witney in the audience, but joining in with the proceedings. Ah, well. Just wish we could have more serials and b-westerns on blu. That's my more current lament.