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Here's a Roy Rogers flick with a slightly different twist. But actually, it's so slight that if you miss the first five minutes, you probably won't notice. The film opens with Roy and a troop of Rough Riders, still in uniform, just returning from their exploits on San Juan Hill. Next thing you know they're getting off a stage at an Arizona Border Patrol station, to start their new careers. And that's it for the uniforms. Next time we see them, they're dressed like regular movie cowboys.
Still, it's not quite your average Roy oater, because his crust old sidekick in this one is played by veteran cowboy actor Raymond Hatton, and he does a fine job of it. I have nothing against Gabby Hayes, but it's nice to see someone else in the role. Trigger was also absent, which is neither here nor there. The rest of the film is pretty ordinary Republic fare until the climax, when Roy calls on the gang of ex-Rough Riders to come to his rescue.
Along the way, Roy finds time to sing two tunes. One has some cowboy flavor and the other is a sappy love song. I guess that's better than singing two sappy love songs. Here's the movie:
Your Overlooked Films Round-Up is at Sweet Freedom.
And, a few years later, Raymond Hatton was the sidekick in Monogram's "Rough Riders" series, co-starring Buck Jones and Tim McCoy.
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