Roy Rogers in TruColor and Uncut (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Flugel]

Jeff, that "Colt .45' listed is the Randolph Scott movie. But I expect the classic WB TV series B&W's will all eventually be shown on OUTLAW. , and some are on the other OTAs.

D'oh! I should've realized that, Bob...thanks for the correction. Guess I've got the TV series version of Colt .45 on the brain right now (having just ordered WAC's new Blu-Ray set).

Not to go even further off-topic, but I've never seen the TV version of The Cowboys. Any thoughts on that one, Bob (or anyone else)? Seems like Robert Carradine and A. Martinez reprise their roles, while Moses Gunn takes over Roscoe Lee Browne's role.

 

[Bob Gu]

The topic here is fun, Jeff. (Although, I do try to bring it back to Roy Rogers, eventually.)

I remember watching "The Cowboys", but don't remember what I thought of it. It also starred Jim Davis so that gives us a Republic Pictures connection. It only had 12 episodes. Wonder if OUTLAW will rerun them, endlessly like GetTV has been running the 17 "Hondos", since 2015.

I think, "The Cowboys"-1974 may have been the last network 'half-hour' western. A place in TV History. The syndicated "Dusty's Trail", 1973-74, 27 episodes started a little earlier.

The much later, "Bordertown",1989-91, 78 episodes, was a 'half-hour'. I bought a DVD set of that a long, long time ago and never could get through it. The prints were dull or the original photography was murky.

I'll give "The Cowboys" a watch. Just checked "The Cowboys" has another Republic connection. Five episodes were directed by William Whitney. Whitney directed all of the Roy Rogers pictures from 1947-1951.

 

[Bert Greene]

Hmm, I don't think I'm too keen on the name "Outlaws Network" either. Sounds like the kind of enterprise a slicked-up Roy Barcroft would be heading, while sending his henchmen Kenne Duncan and Bud Geary out at night to rob the safe at the headquarters of the Hallmark Channel.

Referencing back to Scott's post of those comic-book titles "Western Love" and "Western Hearts" with their nice photo covers brings up that little sub-genre. When the romance comics started up around 1948 with "Young Romance," there was an avalanche of titles that followed in its wake. Just like the pulp magazines beforehand, we also got a lot of western-romance titles, even if they turned out to be rather short-lived. I've read a number of them from different publishers, but they mostly just seem to be the same bland/routine romance stories, but transposed to a western setting. One pretty nice exception seems to be "Cowgirl Romances" (1950-52) from publisher Fiction House. Many of those seemed to have fairly vibrant western stories, with the romance and female protagonists thrown into the mix. Not too bad at all.

Most folks know Fiction House for their most famous character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, of course. But they also had another heroine, with a western flavor, named "Firehair." She was the cover feature for "Rangers Comics" for many years in the late-40s/early-50s, and even graduated to her own title for a short while. Raised by Indians, she was something of a frontier Sheena. The stories I've read are generally pretty good, especially the first few. Yet another comic character that might have made an interesting serial or b-western heroine if Hollywood had taken notice.

 

[Bob Gu]

Bert, that's funny about robbing the Hallmark Channel's safe. It would be a big haul.

I've been getting the paper Critic's Choice catalog. There are pages and pages and pages of Hallmark Channel Disc titles for sale. In the last fifteen years, since the Warner Archives started, I think the Hallmark Channel has actually released more titles on Disc than the Warner Archives.

I think Republic did a 'Red Ryder' about robbing the Hallmark safe in 1944, called CHEYENNE WILDCAT.

Here's Bud Geary with Bud Osborn and Bob Wilke forcing Peggy Stewart and Francis McDonald to open the safe.

Wild Bill Elliott, as 'Red Ryder', caught Bud Geary and his lookout Kenne Duncan pretty quick.

Catching slick Roy Barcroft took a little longer.

That's Ruth Roman on this romance comic cover. The Western Romance comics had action, humor, and cheesecake 'good girl art'.

Click to enlarge.

Paging through these old comic books online, I find it interesting how comics were not just targeted towards kids, but adults too. There are clothing, jewelry, and foundation garment ads aimed at women and men.

That 40s "Rangers" comic with the 'Firehair' character was geared towards soldiers and cheesecake lovers. Most every "Rangers" cover and the stories inside had a slinky heroine or femme fatale in action packed scenes.

This looks like Russ Heath artwork to me.

In her early adventures, Firehair's outfits were skimpy. Later her costume became more subdued.

I caught the last few minutes of "The Cowboys", on Sunday, on OUTLAW. Very bright and clean picture presentation. Shrunken credits at the end.

OUTLAW shows all the 'old stuff' window boxed. Switching to the TV's zoom setting will pillar box it. The picture was still sharp without losing any/much picture info from the sides. But that may depend on the source material.

He's not an outlaw.

 

[ponset]

 

[Bert Greene]

Some nifty news on the b-western front (albeit silent-era) as Ben Model's 'Undercrank' label's upcoming "Accidentally Preserved, vol. 5" is going to include one of the batch of westerns that Universal made, teaming cowboy star Jack Perrin with Rex, King of the Wild Horses. The film is "Hoofbeats of Vengeance" (1928-Univ), and also features Helen Foster as leading lady. Rex had already been in a number of popular matinee-ish features, and Universal starred the horse in "Wild Beauty" (1927), with Hugh Allen as the male lead. It's happily extant, and commonly found. Then came the six Perrin/Rex features:

1. WILD BLOOD (1928) w. Ethlyne Clair
2. HOOFBEATS OF VENGEANCE (1928) w. Helen Foster
3. GUARDIANS OF THE WILD (1928) w. Ethlyne Clair
4. TWO OUTLAWS (1928) w. Kathleen Collins
5. THE HARVEST OF HATE (1929) w. Helen Foster
6. PLUNGING HOOFS (1929) w. Barbara Worth

"Guardians of the Wild" (1928) has been floating around for a long time. I think I have a VHS copy from Grapevine I got a long time ago. Apparently "Two Outlaws" (1928) and "Plunging Hoofs" (1929) are lost. The survival ratio for Rex's movies is actually pretty good, and even Jack Perrin (who made a ton of silent westerns) has quite a few out there, easily found and seen. Perrin's silent westerns were mostly released by lower-level outfits, like Rayart and Aywon, but they usually seem pretty agreeable, if modest. Films like "The Man from Oklahoma" (1926-Rayart), "Border Vengeance" (1925-Aywon), and "Where The North Holds Sway" (1927-Rayart), all around in fairly decent prints. The latter one is a bit of a lulu, as it, um, 'borrows' its grisly finale from the notorious "Behind the Door" (1919-Par). Signing up for these films with Rex for Universal could be viewed as a little step upward for Perrin. Even though Rex is prominent, Jack Perrin's longtime and popular horse Starlight is still with him in these.

Although not exactly a very prominent name, the cute and petite actress Helen Foster has had a surprising amount of her work making it on disc. Her big role in "Linda" (1929), a fine drama about the awful tradition of child brides in hill country, was put out by Kino on their 'Pioneer Women Filmmakers' set, although the music score was rather daft. Kino also put out the spooky-house comedy "13 Washington Square" (1928-Univ), which I thoroughly loved. Foster had a supporting role in it. Now, next month, Kino is also putting out that cautionary-turned-exploitation "Road to Ruin" duo of silent/talkie (1928/1934) films, which she headlines. As for Helen Foster's leading lady roles in early-talkie B-westerns, they all tend to circulate in the usual PD circles. She was in some particularly good ones, like "Young Blood" (1932-Mon) with Bob Steele, and "The Boiling Point" (1932-Allied) with Hoot Gibson. But the one that probably features her best is "Lucky Larrigan" (1932-Mon) with Rex Bell. It's only a so-so film, but it gives her a particularly good role, and she livens it up.

 

[Bob Gu]

While rooting around the info on that story, I posted above, from Cowgirl Romances #10, 1952, I found out that the story art was a reprint from a 1947 Fiction House comic, Movie Comics #4. Character names were changed and some of the dialog balloons were rewritten.

The art was by famous 'good-girl' artist Matt Baker. Baker's art was an influence on Dave Stevens' Rocketeer art.

 

[Bob Gu]

GRIT is finally showing HELLFIRE With GRIT showing some of the Paramount Republic Trucolor restorations and later B&W widescreen Republics, let's hope HELLFIRE is shown in the latest restoration.

HELLFIRE will be on GRIT, Wed. March 6th, 9AM to 11AM, EST.

I think this YouTube upload is the restored HELLFIRE. It's been up at YouTube for a year and shows with commercials so maybe Paramount gets a cut from the YT monetized fund.

 

[ponset]

 

[Bob Gu]

"Dale, Pat, look at all those Randolph Scott and Joan Weldon pictures!"

Randolph Scott and Stardust.

Roy Rogers on Pal.

Trigger,Jr., Roy, and ?.

Roy and Trigger.

 

[Flashgear]

Great stuff in this thread, Bob, Bert, Scott/Ponset, Jeff and everyone! much appreciated! I love this Dell Roy Rogers Comics #11 cover for November 1948...

 

[ponset]

Sioux City Sue.

Sioux City water tower.
I have live all my life in Iowa and have never been to Sioux City in NW Iowa.
It would be a 4 hour drive from my place.

 

[SuperClark]

I had some of this years ago very tasty loved it!

 

[Bob Gu]

Glenn Ford, Dale, Roy, and Gene Autry.

Some nice posters for Ford's, "The Violent Men-1955.

At the "When The West Was Fun"-1979 TV Special.

Roy, Dale,Trigger, with George Gobel.

 

[Bob Gu]

The filmed at Republic Trucolor released by RKO, MONTANA BELLE-1952 with Jane Russell is showing again, this time on the new OTA station OUTLAW Saturday morning at 11:30AM to 1:30PM Eastern Time.

Publicity.

Jane Russell co-starred with Roy Rogers and some other guy in SON OF PALEFACE.

 

[ponset]

Unexpected crossover, Dale Evans with the Boy Commandos.
Comic Vine says Jack Kirby drew the cover.

Comic vine didn't list the cover artist for REAL FACT COMICS #13.

 

[Bob Gu]

Dale Evans: Easter Bonnet and some other hats.

 

[Bert Greene]

Just received in the mail this week a great new coffee-table book, "The Art of the Classic Western Movie Poster," put together by Ed Hulse. It's a real beauty, depicting something like 800 one-sheet movie posters, from the earliest beginnings of western films to the early-1970s. Gorgeous reproductions of a lot of insanely rare posters. Needless to say, a good number of Roy Rogers' movies are represented. In fact, what's so great is that the b-western field is not given the short shrift at all, even down to the poverty-row cowboys. Which is important because these often sported some of the best poster artwork. Almost breath-takingly attractive, in that old-world romanticist style.

Speaking of which, I'm also amazed to see so many terrific silent-era movie posters in the book. Decades ago, I used to assume that almost everything in the one-sheet vein was lost, with only a scant few surviving here and there. But so many examples have surfaced in recent years, and they are fascinating to see. The colors and artwork are just stunning. All in all, a really jaw-dropping book, which I know I'm going to be constantly pouring over.

 

[bujaki]

Just received in the mail this week a great new coffee-table book, "The Art of the Classic Western Movie Poster," put together by Ed Hulse. It's a real beauty, depicting something like 800 one-sheet movie posters, from the earliest beginnings of western films to the early-1970s. Gorgeous reproductions of a lot of insanely rare posters. Needless to say, a good number of Roy Rogers' movies are represented. In fact, what's so great is that the b-western field is not given the short shrift at all, even down to the poverty-row cowboys. Which is important because these often sported some of the best poster artwork. Almost breath-takingly attractive, in that old-world romanticist style.

Speaking of which, I'm also amazed to see so many terrific silent-era movie posters in the book. Decades ago, I used to assume that almost everything in the one-sheet vein was lost, with only a scant few surviving here and there. But so many examples have surfaced in recent years, and they are fascinating to see. The colors and artwork are just stunning. All in all, a really jaw-dropping book, which I know I'm going to be constantly pouring over.

I knew Hulse when he was a teenager. I kept in touch with his activities via a mutual friend, the late Rick Scheckman. I never imagined at the time that he would grow into an accomplished film scholar.
Now, make sure you don't pour over too much of anything over the book or you'll spoil it. However, pore over as the western spirit possesses you.

 

[bujaki]

Just received in the mail this week a great new coffee-table book, "The Art of the Classic Western Movie Poster," put together by Ed Hulse. It's a real beauty, depicting something like 800 one-sheet movie posters, from the earliest beginnings of western films to the early-1970s. Gorgeous reproductions of a lot of insanely rare posters. Needless to say, a good number of Roy Rogers' movies are represented. In fact, what's so great is that the b-western field is not given the short shrift at all, even down to the poverty-row cowboys. Which is important because these often sported some of the best poster artwork. Almost breath-takingly attractive, in that old-world romanticist style.

Speaking of which, I'm also amazed to see so many terrific silent-era movie posters in the book. Decades ago, I used to assume that almost everything in the one-sheet vein was lost, with only a scant few surviving here and there. But so many examples have surfaced in recent years, and they are fascinating to see. The colors and artwork are just stunning. All in all, a really jaw-dropping book, which I know I'm going to be constantly pouring over.

I knew Hulse when he was a teenager. I kept in touch with his activities via a mutual friend, the late Rick Scheckman. I never imagined at the time that he would grow into an accomplished film scholar.
Now, make sure you don't pour over too much of anything over the book or you'll spoil it. However, pore over it as often as the western spirit possesses you.