Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

If you don't expect much in the way or originality, you may enjoy this lively inexpensive Western. Roy Rogers and two buddies are discharged from Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and join the Border Patrol. Intrigues, fist fights, shoot outs, and romance follow. The girl in the case, Mary Hart, is attractive enough but neither here nor there.Roy Rogers gets to sing dumb songs with lyrics like "the stars never fail while I'm ridin' on the trail." But he has a pleasant voice and he actually plays the guitar he's holding, and doesn't just use it as a prop.I always liked these cheap Westerns as a kid -- Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Wild Bill Elliot. The heroes were always so polite, well-dressed, honest, and they never threw a punch or drew their guns without just cause. Rogers, in particular, was a favorite because he was younger than some and, I thought, handsome enough to be envied.When I grew up, I watched his TV program once in a while and he was STILL a nice guy. His chat buddy asked him why he'd had Trigger stuffed. "What was I going' to do?", replied Rogers, still the candid man of yesteryear, "put him in the ground and let the bugs eat him?" The former Leonard Slye came west with an Okie family during the depression, had had a hard youth, and was lucky enough to become a movie star instead of a peach picker. Good for him.

Frankly, if it says "Roy Rogers," the odds are it will be good. And this one is. For several reasons.One, the historical setting is very interesting. It's around the turn of the 1900s and this contingent of Rough Riders is returning to these United States ... well, actually, considering the time, to a territory of these United States: Arizona, and the border with Mexico.The Rough Riders' leader, Colonel Teddy Roosevelt, is being talked about as a vice-presidential candidateRoy Rogers nearly always played either himself or a character named Roy Rogers, which was the case this time. It seems an odd practice, but was also done with Gene Autry, among others. Often, it detracted and/or distracted from the movie, but here it doesn't matter.Soldier turned Border Patrol officer Rogers is joined by, among others, Rusty Coburn, played by veteran Raymond Hatton, an actor who had been around since the silent days and who often hammed it up like a B-class John Barrymore but who, here, was restrained and believable.Other talent, and I do mean talent, included the beautiful Lynne Roberts and former chorus girl Dorothy Sebastian, as well as the prolific Eddie Acuff and the almost ubiquitous Hank Bell, again uncredited!Seriously, it's hard to think of westerns without thinking of Hank Bell, he of the handle-bar mustache and Western drawl, and a superb character actor. Here he got some lines and again showed he should have been given many more speaking parts and many more-important parts. Maybe he never complained but many of us, his fans, do.Amazingly, also uncredited were Duncan Renaldo and George Montgomery. The latter had a small part, but Duncan Renaldo's character was very important to the story.Chris-Pin Martin and the really talented I. Stanford Jolley were also uncredited even though Martin also had an important part.So, even if the story or directing or music were minor -- and they weren't; they were quite good; after all, the director was Joseph Kane - - the cast alone makes this more than worthwhile.

Despite the title, this is not a film from the Rough Riders series from Monogram--though Raymond Hatton (one of the three Rough Riders) does appear in this film. Instead, it's a Roy Rogers film--and it's set just after the end of the Spanish-American War (1898)--rather late for a western film. So, the 'Rough Riders' in the title is a reference to the men who had just returned from fighting in Cuba (with Colonel Roosevelt).The film finds these recent war vets in Arizona along the border. There is a bandit, Arizona Jack, who runs back and forth across this border--and US Customs officials are anxious to catch him without starting an international incident. At the same time, there is a runaway lady who they are also admonished to locate. Somehow these two things are interrelated and it's up to Roy and the gang to set things right--mostly be ignoring the law and international boundaries! This is a rather enjoyable Rogers outing and interestingly enough, it actually discusses a serious problem in the early part of the 20th century--Mexican bandit incursions into the US for raids. In the film, the bandit was an American but in real life they were Mexicans and resulted in the US briefly invading Mexico in search of him. Not a great film but worth seeing even if the music is only so-so.

Roy Rogers and a few other veterans of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders return from the Spanish-American War and take jobs as Arizona border patrolmen. When Roy's friend is killed in a rowdy border town by men operating on both sides, he takes off his badge and crosses into Mexico to settle the score.One of Rogers' okay early outings, there's a lot of atmosphere (something Republic Pictures was really good at when they tried), some decent action scenes, including a fun saloon brawl, and a fairly rousing finale.This time, music is an afterthought, with Roy singing only a couple of brief songs. There's a good (probably canned) music score too.