This is How Movies Should Be Made

Better Late Then Never

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Copyright 2 July 1942 by Republic Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 2 July 1942. Never theatrically released in Australia or broadcast on television. 6 reels. 61 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Zorro/Destry revisited.COMMENT: Our hats are off to the boys at Roadshow Video. No hard-headed theatermen these, with their eyes firmly fixed on profits. One of their first offerings in their new Republic Collection is a Roy Rogers movie originally judged so lacking in commercial appeal in some territories that it wasn't even released! Of course it's possible the original distributors were wrong. But now that we've had a chance to view the movie at long last - for which our heartfelt thanks - we're tempted to agree that it's not one of Roy's finest.Mind you, it's attractively cast. Rogers himself is at his charming best, even though he's handed only three choruses, and he's appealingly supported by Hayes doing his juggling act (a nice bit of business this), and Maris Wrixon acting perky and looking beautiful. Bradley Page is okay as the heavy, but Hal Taliaferro is more impressive as his henchman. Chester Conklin has a few close-ups to try out one or two of his comic expressions. And although unbilled, Pat Brady has a lead role as Gabby's sidekick, while Bob Nolan is oddly though not disturbingly cast as the heroine's ranch foreman.The problems are not entirely with the script either. It builds up to a double-action climax and has a few chases and stunts along the way. The trouble is that the climax is resolved too quickly, the chases are all filmed from static camera positions, and one of the stunts is so weak that I could do it myself (and I'm no athlete). A lot of the action takes place at night. While the darkened studio interiors look good, the day-for-night exteriors look very shoddy indeed. The washed out, TV-graded dupe of a 16mm print under review doesn't help either. (This video was allegedly mastered from "original film negative". I don't know about you, but I call original film negative the master negative from which the 1942 35mm theatrical prints were struck. Instead this video print was made from a 16mm dupe negative, deliberately over-exposed for TV use. A dupe negative - and a lousy one at that - is not an original film negative, boys).In short a minor western outing indeed, made on a limited budget, hastily directed and at times even clumsily edited. This one is mainly aimed for Maris Wrixon fans.Incidentally, the title has nothing to do with the plot. And as for The Sons of the Pioneers as a singing group, they figure very briefly only at the very beginning and very end of the picture.

When I was a kid growing up in a small Louisiana town we normally walked into town on Saturday afternoons to see western movies. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Lash Larue. A kid doesn't have much concept of passing time and I had no recollection that these were 50 to 60 minute movies. Now, through the magic of the internet and Netflix streaming video, we can re-watch some of these old classics.Roy Rogers plays, go ahead and guess it ... Roy Rogers. He is a mild-mannered scientist back East but knows he will some day go back west, to Rogersville where his father, grandfather, and grandfather are fondly remembered. All he needs is an excuse. That excuse comes when his old friend Gabby travels to encourage Roy to come back and run for sheriff. It seems some nighttime bandits are burning down barns and making livestock sick, and they need help.The actual story isn't that important, it is how Roy returns and plays dumb so that he has time to figure out who the bad guys are. We have several horseback chases, a couple of shoot-outs, and in the end the bad guys get put in their place.Then there are the 5 or 6 songs scattered through the movie. All in all a pleasant visit back to a B&W movie of my younger days.

Roy Rogers is summoned by Sheriff "Gabby" Hayes to save a modern day town from a gang of cattle-poisoning arsonists. Gabby believes Mr. Rogers, if elected Sheriff, will follow in the footsteps of his Roy Rogers namesakes (including his father and grandfather). However, Rogers seems meek and mild; though a popular man, townspeople wonder if he is up to the job.This is an interesting Rogers vehicle in that the character is presented as a hero perhaps not up to the task at hand; no points for guessing how he does, finally! There is the expected "shootout" to end the film, but it really peaks earlier as Rogers' car is stolen; he gets the car back in fine form. Rogers sings with Gabby, with Bob Nolan and the "Sons of the Pioneers", and with some unfortunately intrusive dialog. **** Sons of the Pioneers (1942) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Maris Wrixon

Plenty of amusement in this Roy Rogers movie as the folks borrow the plot of DESTRY RIDES AGAIN. Roy's father and grandfather were both old-fashioned, famous western sheriffs. Gabby Hayes fetches him out to deal with cattle rustlers.... but the FGI after his name is not the Federal Gureau of Investigation, but Fellow of the Geographical Institute.As usual in these movies, a lot of care is taken for some lovely cinematography, although there are some obvious day-for-night shot given away by the shadows. The Sons of the Pioneers, as you might expect, show up to sing a few songs, and this high-class B Western is sure to please fans of the genre.