Romance on the Range

Don't be fooled by the slightly silly-sounding title - 'Romance On the Range' is one of the very best of Roy Rogers' films from the early '40s. There's nothing terribly unusual about the plot, but all of its elements - tight scripting, great cast, good direction, beautiful cinematography and excellent music - come together in just the right way to make it a solid and entertaining B-Western.

The villains in this instance are fur thieves looting the traps on the ranch where Roy, Gabby Hayes and the Sons of the Pioneers work as foreman, camp cook and cowhands, respectively. Roy & Co. take a personal interest when another cowhand (noted stuntman Henry Wills in an uncredited bit part) is murdered after stumbling onto the gang at work. Meanwhile, the ranch's absentee owner (Linda Hayes, in the best of her three roles opposite Roy) also takes an interest in the case and decides to come West incognito to do some investigating of her own, posing as a friend of her excitable maid Sally Payne, who coincidentally has been corresponding with ranch hand Pat Brady through a Lonely Hearts club.

The good guys take the requisite amount of time to realize who the bad guys are, leaving plenty of room for fun, mishaps and music along the way. George 'Gabby' Hayes is at his very best as the cantankerous ranch cook, especially in one absolutely hysterical sequence where he tries to scare the girls away from the ranch by playing on their fear of wild animals. There's also an exceptional line-up of villains in this one - besides brains heavy Edward Pawley we have Glenn Strange, Roy Barcoft, who provides a humorous running gag with a taste for sleight-of-hand and tricky 'gadgets,' and an especially nasty Harry Woods. As the icing on the cake, Roy and the Sons are in fine voice, performing five outstanding musical numbers, of which the highlight is the irresistibly toe-tapping showstopper 'Sing As You Work.' Altogether, a must-see for fans of Roy's, B-Western enthusiasts or just anyone who likes a fun and well-crafted little film.

Fast-moving Rogers and Hayes horse opera. There's plenty of hard riding, some fast shooting, but few flying fists. Roy and Gabby work on a fur farm where illegal trappers grab the pelts and hide them for later sale. The law's not much help, so the guys organize their own posse. Then in a mix-up, Roy gets fired but the posse leaves with him. Now there's three groups competing - Roy's, the sheriff's, and the baddies. And if that weren't enough, the head-stong girl owner of the fur ranch shows up undercover. Sound complex - yes it is - but entertaining, nevertheless.

Note how director Kane keeps things moving, along with sudden camera pans, unusual for oaters. Also, couldn't help noticing brawny Glenn Strange from TV's Gunsmoke as a really convincing baddie. Also, it's a Gabby showcase as he gets lots of feisty screentime. And catch his fade-out remark at flick's end that sort of sums up his opinion of romance and sunsets. And dig that weird drive-thru cabin the outlaws use, perfect for those of us in LA. Anyhow, it's another triumph for us matinee geezers, and for younger folks who take the time.

(In passing - Catch those other-worldly, rock slabs used as occasional background here. They're known as the Vasquez Rock Monoliths, located just north of LA. What made them so appealing to sci-fi and oater low-budgeters of the time is that they were classified as part of greater LA. So producers didn't have to pay extra for out-of-LA location shooting. For cheapos of the time, that was a real savings, and a big benefit for audience eyes, as well, as this outdoor flick happily shows.)

Romance Rides The Range has Roy Rogers and the Sons Of The Pioneers as foreman and ranch hands for absentee owner, society girl Linda Hayes. The place has a sideline in fur trapping, but it's poaching those furs and not cattle rustling that Roy's concerned about.

So is Hayes and she decides to go to her ranch to investigate herself, but go incognito. She and her maid Sally Payne go and tell no one who Hayes is. As it turns out Payne has a correspondence boy friend among the hands in Pat Brady.

There are some clever poachers that Roy has to deal with that include perennial western villains Roy Barcroft, Harry Woods, and Glenn Strange. They also have a really thick sheriff in Hal Taliaferro as well.

Some of Roy's banter with Linda Hayes was nice, but would work far better when Dale Evans was cast as his leading lady in film and in life. Still Roy and Hayes have some nice dialog between them.

This maybe the first time Pat Brady was prominently featured in a Roy Rogers western. Pat was a funny guy and stroked a mean bass fiddle. But seeing him out on the range accompanying the Sons Of The Pioneers was a bit much. The tradition of the singing cowboy has a basis when cowboys were riding herd especially at night, they would sing to the cattle to keep them calm. But I doubt that anyone would pack a bass fiddle on the range.

This is also a change from 19th century to 20th century settings for Roy Rogers films. And he used a good film to do it in.

Linda Hayes has never seen her ranch out west, which she inherited from her father, but she knows the fur trapping is suffering. There have been a lot of robberies of the pelts, and even one murder. Her maid, Sally Payne, is engaged to Pat Brady, a hand on the ranch via a lonely hearts club. Miss Hayes takes it into her head that she can investigate on the QT by posing as another Lonely Hearts Club member, accompanying her maid.

Of course, we know that it's the ranch manager, Edward Pawley, in charge of the depredations, because he's discussing it with a henchman before we see anything else. Next they go on to talk about what to do about the top hand, Roy Rogers, but decide to leave him be, because the plot demands it, apparently.

It's a pleasant enough outing for Rogers under the direction of Joseph Kane, with all the regulars on hand: Gabby Hayes, the Sons of the Pioneers, and so forth. There are some nice songs, and so on, but the usual solid writing is wrecked because we know up front whodunnit, without the pleasure of matching our wits against the good guys'. It was a common failing of the cheaper sort of B western, and it's a shame to see them fall into it here. I suppose I could come up with excuses for the failure, but they would be excuses, and it is a failure.