Sintown is just a deserted ghost town until Vanderpool starts looking for silver. Cookie and Roy's partners put $20,000 into the business only to find that the mine is worthless and Vanderpo... Read allSintown is just a deserted ghost town until Vanderpool starts looking for silver. Cookie and Roy's partners put $20,000 into the business only to find that the mine is worthless and Vanderpool is bankrupt. Carol comes out to look for silver to save the company, but does not know ... Read allSintown is just a deserted ghost town until Vanderpool starts looking for silver. Cookie and Roy's partners put $20,000 into the business only to find that the mine is worthless and Vanderpool is bankrupt. Carol comes out to look for silver to save the company, but does not know that their engineer, named Regan, is crooked and wants all the silver for himself. But onl... Read all
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Roy appeared kind of dumb in this one, and so did everyone else. It was customary for the lead cowboy to be able to figure out the crooks' plan and identify the leader. Roy took forever to suspect Regan, and it was only after other characters helped him that he ever learned anything. Instead of standing on guard duty and being prodded by Cookie, Foy, and the Riders of the Purple Sage, he should have already scouted around looking for clues. As much interaction as there was between the cowboys and Regan's crew someone should have suspected something sooner. There was no battle of wits. Carol Martin never figured out who wanted to hurt her and who wanted to save her until almost the end of the movie despite how obvious it was.
Roy got in a lot of fist fights in this one. More than once he got clobbered over the head and knocked out. Andy Devine bounced people around with his stomach. The sound effect of a kettle drum would have been perfect if not for the fact that the movie was not a vehicle for slapstick comedy.
The Hangman Hotel was an abandoned old building that provided an opportunity for plenty of haunted house stick comedy. There were scenes of characters chasing from one room to the other with fights throughout the building and crossed paths between the good guys and bad guys. Seeing Andy Devine scream once is funny, but there can be too much of a good thing. The hotel was critical to the story as it was the site where a murder victim was discovered, but the hotel was over-used.
Seeing Robert Livingston go from the leader of the Three Mesquiteers to playing a villain is disheartening. Above all he was an actor who played the part of Regan perfectly. Watching past heroes playing villains or small roles always comes across as sad because few of them ever went back to the glory of their previous films.
Overall the story was good, but it I think the characters could have been developed a little better. Not a bad movie, Grand Canyon Trail is a lull in the Roy Rogers series despite having a great cast and, for some, Trucolor.
The story is pretty simple. An old silver mine was thought to be depleted but recently there's been some indication that much more could be extracted using modern mining techniques. Cookie (Andy Devine) is so sure this will pan out (get it?) that he invests all of his and Roy's money in this mine. Soon after, the scene switches to the mine owner and his secretary....and he's just received word that the mine is NOT going to be productive and all the investors will be screwed.
Roy goes to investigate and meets one of the worst tropes in these old B-westerns...the know-it-all woman who instantly takes a dislike to him even though Roy is a hero and a swell guy. Much of the movie is spent with her yelling at Roy or sicking the sheriff (James Finlayson...a most unusual casting choice) on him. But there's more to the mine than the stories the mine owner has gotten...and the fact that the workers try so hard to prevent Roy and this super-annoying woman from getting close to it tips him off about their scheme to defraud everyone! What's next? See the film.
This is a pleasant film aside from the woman you want to violently shame and tell to shut up!! That is why although Rogers was fine here, I cannot give the film a score any higher...the trope has been so overused and is so annoying. Plus, it doesn't age well and seems pretty sexist. Still, the movie is worth seeing...just try to ignore her antics.
The ghost town set and dark abandoned hotel form the stage for this action oater. Roy's nine pictures with Andy Devine marked a real difference in style from earlier movies. Andy was brought in after Gabby Hayes left the series in 1946. While Andy still provided comic relief, the villains grew more ruthless and Roy sang less. Here there are only three pretty good non-action stopping tunes in the movie. Comedy of Errors inspired sequence in the spooky hotel about halfway through seems a little out of sync with the rest of the movie.
Originally filmed in "Trucolor", seemingly only the black and white prints remain on this one. Unfortunately as with a lot of the later Roy Rogers movies, this one was later chopped to bits to reduce the runtime from 67 minutes down to 54 to fit for television. Good news here is that unlike a few of Roy's other movies where the chopped footage appears lost forever, Grand Canyon Trail can still be found intact in the full length version. For Roy Rogers Fans it's worth the effort to find to 67 minute unedited format.
Pretty decent Roy Rogers flick. 6 of 10*
** Grand Canyon Trail (1948) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, Jane Frazee, Andy Devine
Did you know
- TriviaFilmed in Trucolor, but available only in black & white currently.
- ConnectionsEdited into Six Gun Theater: The Grand Canyon Trail (2022)
Details
- Runtime1 hour 7 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1