Roy Rogers in TruColor and Uncut (4 Viewers)

[Bob Gu]

DOWN DAKOTA WAY-1949, Trucolor, 67 minutes.

This was released on Republic Home Video, uncut on VHS, with a slightly dark and greenish print. There are YouTube uploads of an edited unrestored print and an uncut newer print version that looks brighter but still needs color correction, to turn the teal looking denim blue. The credits in the newer print are centered better than the old VHS.

On the way to a Wild West show, Roy and the Riders of the Purple Sage are visiting another of Roy's hometowns, when they encounter a bus holdup.

The local animal doctor is taken off the bus and murdered. This is part of Roy Barcroft's plan to sell diseased cattle before the authorities could be notified by the vet. His henchmen are Byron Barr and James Cardwell.

Byron Barr:

Pat and Roy with James Cardwell:

Dale is the new schoolmarm.

The old schoolmarm, Elisabeth Risdon, is the aunt/stepmother of Barr. She tries to stop the sheriff from arresting Barr.

Pat Brady is on hand with some hound dogs. Some of the dogs that show up in Roy Rogers movies might have been owned by Roy. In one of his bios, Roy tells of the time he had to go to the murder scene of Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer, to pick up his hunting dogs. Switzer had been shot to death, during a card game, and had borrowed Roy's dogs at the time.

The sheriff in DOWN DAKOTA WAY is played by, riding and roping expert, Montie Montana. Montana rides his own paint horse in the movie.

Montie Montana was famous, in 1953, for throwing a lasso around President Dwight D. Eisenhower, during his Inaugural Parade.

YouTube edited 54-min, version.

 

[Bob Gu]

SPOILERS OF THE PLAINS-1951, B&W, 67 minutes.

The full theatrical print survives and has been on the Western channel and is also available on the 'collector' PD market.

SPOILERS was the first of the last five Roy Rogers movies made by Republic Studios, and all were released in 1951, and in black and white.

Why were the last five made in black and white instead of Trucolor? I had thought that it was because Roy had decided to not renew his Republic contract and go into TV with his own production company, and Republic just didn't want to promote Roy anymore with Trucolor. That might have been part of it.

But, by early 1951, Republic had stopped filming in 2-color Trucolor and was gearing up for 3-color Trucolor. Republic released the last 2-color Trucolor in March of 1951, OH! SUSANNAH, with Rod Cameron. Republic released only black and white movies until the first 3-color Trucolor was released in October of 1951, HONEYCHILE. with Judy Canova.

In SPOILERS OF THE PLAINS, Roy and the Riders of the Purple Sage are running an oil distribution pipeline.

An experimental rocket crashes into the pipeline and starts an oil fire. The Sagers , Roy and Trigger, in fire proof suits fight the fire with foam and dynamite!

Roy makes a damages claim to the responsible rocket scientists, grumpy William Forrest and his gorgeous daughter Penny Edwards. They are testing Forrest's rocket circuitry designs for the Government.

Gordon Jones and Bullet are on hand too.

Did I mention Penny plays a rocket scientist? (Of course, the actual large rockets and rocket models, in the movie, were flown by the Lydecker brothers.)

Besides rocket circuitry and fire fighting foam, another high tech item in the story is a reel to reel audio tape recording machine. Wire and steel recorders were around since the 1920s and 1930s. Research says, mass market home audio tape recording machines became available in 1951. The fire fighting foam was around since the 1920s, also.

Traitor, Grant Withers is after the circuitry.

Roy, Trigger, and Bullet tangle with the bad guys and their big mean dog, too.

Things don't look good for Roy and Bullet, here, but they bounce back.

There are exciting wagon stunts.

The big action finale with the wagons looked dangerous! The good guys and bad guys are chasing and fighting each other down a road at high speed in two big freight wagons, full of stuntmen. There is a lot of jumping back and forth between the two wagons. In a long shot you can see one stuntman miss his jump and fall under the back wagon wheel, for real!!!

Can you see the hidden driver? That's Roy on the back pair of horses, in the middle of the picture.

Penny Edwards rides, Dale's horse, Buttermilk in Spoilers.

 

[Bert Greene]

Always liked "Spoilers of the Plains" (1951) because of the fun mix of modern-day rockets, military, espionage and such. It's a shame B-westerns were petering out at his point, because I would have liked to have seen more of these very 1950-ish variations, with little touches of pseudo-science and maybe even sci-fi thrown in on occasion. Surely Republic could keep using that tin-can rocketship from the "Flying Disc Man" handy for more backdrops. Plus, just as the movie cowboys occasionally moved up to modern-eras to fight Nazi saboteurs in WW2, they could do the same with godless commie spies. Although come to think of it, I'm not sure if Roy Barcroft or Bob Wilke could handle foreign accents all that well. Call casting and get Steven Geray for head baddie. The mixing of western and sci-fi worked for Gene Autry back in "The Phantom Empire" (1935) of course. I'd like to think something could have been concocted in the 1950s. Although my first thought is the somewhat awkward Charlton comic-book title from around that same time, "Space Western," featuring cowboy hero 'Spurs Jackson' battling aliens and making space journeys. Results? A bit weird.

With the B-westerns on the wane back then, I do wish the studios might have tried a bit more experimenting. Republic did actually try something different that year (1951) with their "Rough Ridin' Kids" series, starring youngsters Michael Chapin and Eileen Janssen. Five films in all, I believe. Most B-western buffs seem to turn up their noses at these, but I found them to be pretty cute little films. Might have also been interesting if Republic attempted a B-western series with a female lead. It had been done a decade earlier, with Grand National distributing a trio of cheapie westerns starring Dorothy Page, produced by the Hirlicolor dude. They weren't very good, though. I've always 'wanted' to like them more than I actually did, but they are pretty drab affairs.

Female western leads were a bit more common in the silent era, with headliners like Texas Guinan and Marie Walcamp and such, all over the place in the late-1910s, not unlike Helen Holmes and her railroad-themed adventures, which I always thought of as 'kin' to the westerns. Universal had Josie Sedgwick starring in a series of western two-reelers in the mid-1920s (occasionally co-starring Edmund Cobb), and also starred her in a couple of features, "The Outlaw's Daughter" (1925) and "Daring Days" (1925). Josie's sister Eileen Sedwick had starred in some western-themed serials for Universal a few years earlier. I've also long been intrigued by a short series of extremely obscure western features in the mid-1920s starring Tom Mix's daughter Ruth. Might have mentioned them before on this thread. Ruth Mix must have only been about 14 years old at the time. Yeah, a series of independent, ultra-cheap western features starring a young teenage girl. Obviously meant to capitalize on the huge Mix name. Anyway, I've never seen a single shred of publicity, exploitation, or even reference to these films. A few years later, into the talkie realm, Ruth Mix was teamed with down-on-their-heels cowboy stars Rex Bell and Buzz Barton in a quartet of zero-budget oaters, circa 1934-35. Despite threadbare productions, a couple of them are actually pretty interesting, albeit in a primitive way.

Eh, veering off into too many tangents again. Sorry, Roy. Sorry, Dale.

 

[RBailey]

emale western leads were a bit more common in the silent era, with headliners like Texas Guinan and Marie Walcamp and such, all over the place in the late-1910s, not unlike Helen Holmes and her railroad-themed adventures, which I always thought of as 'kin' to the westerns. Universal had Josie Sedgwick starring in a series of western two-reelers in the mid-1920s (occasionally co-starring Edmund Cobb), and also starred her in a couple of features, "The Outlaw's Daughter" (1925) and "Daring Days" (1925). Josie's sister Eileen Sedwick had starred in some western-themed serials for Universal a few years earlier. I've also long been intrigued by a short series of extremely obscure western features in the mid-1920s starring Tom Mix's daughter Ruth. Might have mentioned them before on this thread. Ruth Mix must have only been about 14 years old at the time. Yeah, a series of independent, ultra-cheap western features starring a young teenage girl. Obviously meant to capitalize on the huge Mix name. Anyway, I've never seen a single shred of publicity, exploitation, or even reference to these films. A few years later, into the talkie realm, Ruth Mix was teamed with down-on-their-heels cowboy stars Rex Bell and Buzz Barton in a quartet of zero-budget oaters, circa 1934-35. Despite threadbare productions, a couple of them are actually pretty interesting, albeit in a primitive way.

Bert, I also am a big fan of SPOILERS OF THE PLAINS which is one of my favorite Rogers-Witney films along with EYES OF TEXAS, NIGHTTIME IN NEVADA and BELLS OF SAN ANGELO.

Other studios had a few great candidates in establishing a female B-western star. The main one who comes to mind was Nell O'Day who appeared in a bunch of Johnny Mack Brown films at Universal. The other was Betty Miles at Monogram and PRC studios. Amazon Prime has SONORA STAGECOACH available now for viewing. It's one of the later Monogram "Trail Blazers" films with Hoot Gibson, Bob Steele and Chief Thundercloud (replacing Ken Maynard). There's a scene where Betty leaps from the top of a stagecoach onto a nearby rock formation that is really impressive. (Another neat element about SONORA is the film opens with a film noir-like narration with extreme closeups of each of the leads that is really unique).

Nell O'Day and Betty Miles are two examples of money left on the table.

 

[Bert Greene]

Universal did nicely highlight Nell O'Day in those many Johnny Mack Brown westerns of the early-1940s, but it would have been indeed even more interesting (tho highly unlikely) had they given her a lead starring role. She certainly had all the right talents and attributes for a sturdy western heroine. I love her. In fact, I got a huge kick out of seeing her debut in "King of Jazz" (1930), in that adagio-style dance number, getting tossed around in the air as part of the Tommy Atkins group, as well as showing up briefly in the gargantuan final number. Probably prepared her well for saddle and stunt action coming a few years later in her career! She's also in an isolated western that I really love, "Smoke Lightning" (1933-Fox). Oh, it's not really that special or that standout a western in most ways, but it has such a pleasant, easy-going style, and nice atmosphere. O'Day is quite fetching in it, although less involved in the action than she would be in the Brown films. I find those old Fox-era George O'Brien films to be some of the best and most enjoyable of western series films, with items like "Mystery Ranch" (1932) and "Riders of the Purple Sage" (1931) and such. Even when the O'Brien westerns shifted over to Sol Lesser productions in the mid-1930s (but still released through Fox), there were some delightful gems. I've long ranked "When a Man's a Man" (1935) and "Whispering Smith Speaks" (1935) as two of my all-time favorites.

I've seen most of Betty Miles' western appearances (but NOT "Sonora Stagecoach," unfortunately), though it's mostly been a long time ago, and never quite in a manner concentrated enough that I could really take strong note of her. Recall her mostly from Monogram and PRC efforts (usually films dogged by poor prints), but it seems she was also in the rather memorably fun Bill Elliott outing "The Return of Daniel Boone" (1941) for Columbia. I have a couple of lobby cards from that one, but no Betty Miles depicted in them. Anyway, it sounds like I really need to re-acquaint myself with her!

 

[Bob Gu]

Ruth Mix

With Tex Ritter, Tarzan and Ken Maynard

With Gene Autry

Nell O'Day

Standing Max 'Alibi' Terhune, seated Elmer, Ray 'Crash Corrigan' and John 'Dusty King'.

With Fuzzy Knight and Johnny Mack Brown.

Betty Miles

With Wild Bill.

With Bob Steele

 

[RBailey]

Bob Gu....Great pictures here. Thanks for all your great posts!

 

[Bob Gu]

John, thanks for the support!

 

[Flashgear]

Bob, I just found this wonderful picture on FB, and of course thought of you and decided it might be appreciated here...forgive me if it has already been posted by yourself or others...A Republic Pictures double bill on the marquee...Grand Blvd., St. Louis Mo., probably in very early 1945...as, according to IMDB, Lights of Old Santa Fe was released on Nov. 6 1944, and Richard Arlen's The Big Bonanza on December 30, 1944...if this was very artfully colorized or not, I cannot discern...if not, the beautiful and exquisite colors were accomplished likely by the superlative Kodachrome, even under this overcast...beautiful, as it almost looks like an oil painting...and wonderfully nostalgic...The Fox theater is still intact to this day, a local treasure...

 

[Gary OS]

Bob, I just found this wonderful picture on FB, and of course thought of you and decided it might be appreciated here...forgive me if it has already been posted by yourself or others...A Republic Pictures double bill on the marquee...Grand Blvd., St. Louis Mo., probably in very early 1945...as, according to IMDB, Lights of Old Santa Fe was released on Nov. 6 1944, and Richard Arlen's The Big Bonanza on December 30, 1944...if this was very artfully colorized or not, I cannot discern...if not, the beautiful and exquisite colors were accomplished likely by the superlative Kodachrome, even under this overcast...beautiful, as it almost looks like an oil painting...and wonderfully nostalgic...The Fox theater is still intact to this day, a local treasure...

Awesome pic, Randall. Thanks so much for sharing it.

 

[Bob Gu]

Beautiful picture, Randall! Thanks! I believe you are right about it being an actual color photo.

I researched the photo and it was taken by Russell Froelich. Froelich was an expert photographer in both black and white and color. He was also an airplane designer and, according to wiki, came up with the term 'monoplane' to describe a single fixed wing aircraft. He designed wing cameras for aerial map making photography, during WWI.

He was the official photographer of the Benoist Aircraft Company. Benoist also was involved with the St. Louis Car Company/St Louis Aircraft Corporation. The St. Louis Car Company made automobiles, train cars and most certainly the streetcars in your photo.

I could not find any more of Froelich's color pictures.

I wrote about LIGHTS OF OLD SANTA FE in Post #294 on page 15.

Hey! THE BIG BONANZA has Lynne Roberts, Jane Frazee, and Gabby Hayes!!

 

[Bob Gu]

HEART OF THE ROCKIES-1951, B&W, 66 minutes.

I have the full theatrical 66 minute version from YouTube and a 64 minute VHS version from Sinister Cinema. The YouTube upload, (PizzaFlix), is nice but a little dark and there is a night time sequence about 29 minutes in that is impossible to see. In the Sinister VHS shorter version that night scene is viewable.

Roy and The Riders of the Purple Sage, (in their last Roy Rogers movie appearance), are building a state highway through ranch land that had been bought under eminent domain. The road crew is made up of convicts....youthful offenders... like Buzz Henry and (33 year old) Rand Brooks, under Warden William Gould. Gordon Jones runs a nearby Dude Ranch.

Rancher Ralph Morgan and his foreman Fred Graham want to stop the road work, because, if the road is built, it will bring in new land buyers, who may discover that much of the land Morgan 'owns' is not really his. Morgan is great as the villain.

Penny Edwards with Ralph Morgan.

Morgan frames the convicts to rile up his rancher neighbors to delay or stop the road.

Penny Edwards is Morgan's niece but she does not trust Fred Graham or her uncle's high handed tactics, so she sides with Roy and the convicts. Penny rides Buttermilk in this movie.

Fred Graham covered.

Random Penny Edwards cheesecake.

There are explosions, hard riding, shootouts, and fist fights. Poor Roy gets beat up again and has to be saved by Bullet.

Rand Brooks was in "Gone With The Wind".

He co-starred with Marilyn Monroe.

He was Hoppy's second 'Lucky' Jenkins.

But Rand Brooks is best remembered as Corp. Boone on the "Rin Tin Tin" TV series.

The main sequence missing from the edited versions of HEART OF THE ROCKIES is a Roman Riding square dance, (called by Roy), performed by a women's riding group called 'The Valkyries'.

HEART OF THE ROCKIES was supposed to be released on VHS by Republic Home Video, but RHV messed up the release by actually releasing the wrong movie, a 1937 Three Mesquiteers movie, also called "Heart of the Rockies", in the Roy Rogers VHS box.

The 3M movie was a 53 minute version of a 58 minute movie. What is really odd about the mistake is the folks doing the VHS copying knew they had a shorter movie and used T-55s for the release. It's astounding that no one checked to see they had the right movie and length. Plus no one could tell Roy Rogers from The Three Mesquiteers. The VHS box is nice and I put a VHS copy of the uncut YouTube version in the box.

Full theatrical YouTube.

 

[Bert Greene]

Speaking of Penny Edwards at Republic, it sure would be nice if we could see quality prints of those little B-crime films she headlined for the studio at the time... "Street Bandits" (1951), "Woman in the Dark" (1952), "Million Dollar Pursuit" (1951), and "Missing Women" (1951). Edwards seemed to take the place of Dorothy Patrick as Republic's 'crime time' gal, in some preceding films of similar ilk. They are all minor affairs, but I like all those films. When Olive was releasing some unexpected curve-balls on blu, like "Sabotage" (1939) or "The Vampire's Ghost" (1945) or "No Man's Woman" (1955), I was hoping maybe, just maybe, they'd tap into some of those Edwards/Patrick items. Claim they are 'lost noirs' or something, to fool the suckers.

Ha! That's funny about the 'wrong' "Heart of the Rockies" film being released on tape. I didn't know about that. But these things still happen. Two years ago, The Film Detective put out a disc touted to be the Jack Hoxie silent "Fighting Fury" (1924-Universal), co-starring Helen Holmes. I was pretty excited, as I believed this to be a 'lost' film (outside a supposed 'fragment' at the LoC according to their database). It's not entirely inconceivable that something like this film could show up, especially via Universal's old 'Show at Home' offerings, in which folks could order 16mm copies, made-to-order, from the studio back in the early-1930s or so. Similar to the Kodascope stuff. A number of 'lost' films have resurfaced this way, after all. But nope, despite The Film Detective's dvd-case, showing off a portrait of Hoxie on the front, and a detailed description of the 1924 film on the back, the movie on the disc itself is a 1934 Sherman Krellberg poverty-row talkie featuring the dog star, Kazan, alongside his real trainer Jack King as hero. This movie was originally titled "Outlaws' Highway," but was soon re-titled "Fighting Fury." Whatever the title, it's a rather below-par cheapie. I think I recall preferring the other two 'Kazan the dog' films, "Jaws of Justice" and "Ferocious Pal," although they weren't much to write home about either. Low-low budget stuff.

 

[Bob Gu]

I didn't know Republic had top billed 'crime gals'. I not really familiar with Dorothy Patrick. Teamed with Robert Rockwell, aka Mr. Boynton. Checking her IMDB listing I have seen her in some things.

With Richard 'Chito' Martin in ROAD AGENT-1952 Starring Tim Holt.

Starring Penny Edwards:

Penny with Roy Barcroft and Robert Clarke.

Penny with Grant Withers and Steve Flagg.

MILLION DOLLAR PURSUIT-YouTube

Tons of great male character actors in these Republics.

Penny with Robert 'Inspector Henderson' Shayne.

Penny with John Alvin.

Penny with James 'Lt. Rip Masters' Brown and John Gallaudet.

MISSING WOMEN-YouTube

 

[RBailey]

Amazon Prime has added 3 late '40s color westerns just recently.

SUSANNA PASS with Roy Rogers & Dale Evans has a 67 minute runtime. I've spot checked the film and it definitely is not a restored print. Color is OK but looks like it might come from a 16mm print.

The opening titles for one of Gene Autry's 2 Cinecolor films, THE BIG SOMBRERO looks pretty good. It has a runtime of 1 hour and 17 minutes.

Finally, GUNFIGHTERS with Randolph Scott has been added. This Cinecolor film is listed at 85 minutes.

I always check the "more details" list for studio information for any clues. All 3 of the above list the studio as "Not Available".

 

[Bob Gu]

GUNFIGHTERS is the only Columbia Scott western that has not been released on DVD in R1. I wonder if it's because it is based on a Zane Grey story? It shows up all the time on TV looking fine. There is a Spanish DVD, but the artwork does not have a Sony notice, so I guess it's a bootleg.

THE BIG SOMBRERO and, the other Gene Autry Columbia Cinecolor, THE STRAWBERRY ROAN were released by Image way back. ROAN was reissued in The Gene Autry 4-feature Collection Vol. 6, by Timeless/Shout!. I was surprised to see that NTA, as Republic Home Video, released a VHS of THE BIG SOMBRERO, in 1986.

AMC released THE STRAWBERRY ROAN on VHS.

The two Autry Cinecolors contolled by Autry Inc., released on DVD did not look as nice, to me, as the Scott Cinecolor DVDs released by Sony, from the same original time period.

 

[Professor Echo]

Bob, thanks for all you do in keeping this subject active and maintaining it as definitely one of the best, most enjoyable threads on any message board anywhere. It's the only thread I have ever subscribed to on any forum. It's so nice to be able to escape some of the usual conflicts and confrontations many threads are beset with and just discuss the topic in engaging, enlightening ways. Please know that your efforts here are appreciated. Happy Trails to you, my friend!

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Amen to that!

 

[Bob Gu]

Howdy, Professor Glenn. Thanks, I appreciate your appreciation. It can be lonely on the Roy Rogers B-Western trail. The Rogers are fun movies and expertly made. They lead to many interesting side trips, like production stills, advertisements, posters, actors, actresses, cheesecake, stunts,westerns and other B-movies in general, comics, Republic Studios, film history, etc.

Roy knew a lot of stars.

Roy and Gene in non-western golf outfits. (But I think Roy is wearing 'saddle shoes'.)

Roy with Frankie and Carole Landis.

Jane Withers puts Roy to work.

Trigger in "The Adventures of Robin Hood".

 

[RobertR]

The horse was known as Golden Cloud before being purchased by Roy Rogers and renamed Trigger.