HAPPY TRAILS AGAIN: the Rescued Films of Roy Rogers
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HAPPY TRAILS AGAIN: The rescued films of Roy Rogers By David Morrell the time of Sam Houston, for example, Western icon Roy Rogers rescued or California during the Pony Express many people in his films, but those era. Playing a character named Fletch films themselves have turned out to McCloud, he had a supporting role in need rescuing. John Wayne’s Dark Command (1940), Of the more than 80 in which he which takes place in Civil War Kansas. Party time on the set with producer Eddy White, Roy starred, nearly all were mutilated for In other films, Rogers portrayed his- Rogers and William Witney. Witney Family Archive television. Unless you’re old enough torical Western figures such as Young to have seen his films in theaters, it’s Buffalo Bill (1940) and Young Bill Hickok ings with his later wife, Dale Evans. likely you saw inferior versions and (1940). (Revered My Pal Trigger is an exception can’t appreciate why the Motion Picture During World War II, Rogers’s during this period, its elements of real- Herald’s poll of exhibitors ranked him career entered its second phase when ism making it almost a drama. the No. 1 Western star from 1943- Autry enlisted in the Army Air Forces With Roll on Texas Moon (1946), 1954 or why an estimated 80 million in 1942. (Rogers had a draft deferment Rogers’s films began a third phase. people (half the then-population of because he was married and had chil- The force behind the change was Wil- the United States) went to his movies dren.) Again replacing Autry, Repub- liam Witney, who had directed many each year. lic declared Rogers to be King of the of Republic’s “cliffhanger” serials Most of those movies were made at Cowboys (1943). His character was now during the 1930s and early ’40s (Zorro B-budget Republic Pictures, starting always called Roy Rogers. His films Rides Again, The Lone Ranger, and Dick in 1938 when its singing-cowboy star, now had contemporary settings. Most Tracy Returns, to name a few). Witney Gene Autry, went on strike, demand- importantly, Yates saw Rodgers and invented the modern action sequence. ing more money. Furious, studio presi- Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! on Broad- Prior to 1937, fight scenes depended dent Herbert J. Yates replaced him way and decided that musicals rep- on lengthy master shots in which stunt- with Rogers, a singer/guitarist who resented the future of entertainment. men flailed at each other until they ran had founded the Sons of the Pioneers Thus, from 1943-46, Rogers’s films out of breath. Then Witney saw Busby and performed with them in several (Hands Across the Border, for example) Berkeley (42nd Street) create a complex films. Rogers’s first screen name was tended to minimize action in favor dance sequence by assembling brief Len Slye (a version of his birth name, of lengthy, elaborate song-and-dance images, such as a close-up of dancing Leonard Sly). His second screen name sequences that resembled Las Vegas feet and then a close-up of a smiling was Dick Weston. But now he became shows. These musical extravaganzas actor, making it seem that the actor Roy Rogers, combining a version of include Cowboy and the Senorita (1944), was the dancer. the French word for “king” with an al- Rogers’s first of 28 big-screen pair- Witney realized that the same tech- lusion to revered humorist Will Rogers as well as singer Jimmie Rodgers (one On the set of The Bells of Coronado with William Witney, right of camera, walking toward Dale Evans and Roy Rogers. Witney Family Archive of Rogers’s musical influences). Rogers’s leading-man debut was Under Western Stars (1938), about a singing cowboy who’s elected to Congress and urges legislators to help Dust Bowl ranchers. That film had a Gene Autry blend of action, music, a spirited female co-star, a buffoon sidekick, the 1930s West (horses next to automobiles) and Depression era/ New Deal themes. (See the author’s essay, “Gene Autry’s ‘New Deal’ Western Films,” in the April 2017 Roundup.) But after Autry returned to the studio, Republic needed a different identity for Rogers’s films and set them in the historical West: Texas at DECEMBER 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 21 21 nique could be used for action scenes. pajamas, cowboy boots and cap pistols Trigger, Jr. and Sunset in the West, both In his autobiography, he described the – more than 400 items. from 1950, are available on Blu-ray/ editing process: “A punch, cut, a fall Besides the new approach to editing DVD (from Kino Lorber). over a chair, cut, a charge into some- and action (Rogers’s hat even changed In Trigger, Jr., Jack Marta’s brilliant one and over a desk, cut.” Between shape from peaked to flat), a further color photography offsets its somber these fragments, a close-up showed element distinguishes this last group. theme of a boy traumatized by hav- one of the stars, as if he were doing Starting with Apache Rose (1947) and ing seen a horse stomp his mother to the stunts. “A fall over a table could be ending with Trail of RoBin Hood (1950), death. His grandfather shouts at him done with precision and without the 19 of the 27 Rogers/Witney films were about his fear of horses and strikes chance of being off balance,” Witney in color. Audiences suddenly discov- him with a cane. Rogers helps the boy explained. “A fall off a balcony could ered that Rogers’s famously squinty to find courage, even as Roy hunts be done safer because when they fell eyes were a riveting blue. His fans a psychotic horse that kills livestock they knew their takeoff point.” could now appreciate his rainbow cos- and blinds Trigger. Humor (for the Witney, a World War II combat tumes. The copious blood on his face kids) and strong action (for the adults) photographer, brought something more glistened. His palomino horse, Trigger alternate until Rogers finally straps on than elaborate editing to Rogers’s films (“The Smartest Horse in the Movies”), his guns for the shocking climax. In the – he intensified the action. Starting looked merely light-hued in black-and- script by Gerald Geraghty, the most with Bells of San Angelo (1947), the white but was now truly The Golden significant moment is the quietest when songs became fewer and shorter while Stallion (1949). Rogers – the Zen cowboy, “elegant and fight scenes became protracted, bloody Until recently, it was almost impos- stoic” as the New York Times described and often sadistic. In Springtime in the sible to see original versions of these him – approaches the ranting, abusive Sierras (1947), a fight in a meat locker films. In 1955, Republic sold them to grandfather and calms him by merely ends with thugs beating Rogers sense- television, trimming them from as long touching his shoulder. less and leaving him to freeze to death. as 78 minutes to 54 minutes to fit a Sunset in the West looks equally radi- In North of the Great Divide (1950), one-hour television slot with commer- ant. An example of Rogers’s multicul- Rogers and the bad guy lash each other cials. Some lost more than a quarter of tural movies, it features Hispanic actors with bullwhips, tearing each other’s their length. Color became black and (rare for the time). The ambitious shirts off and inflicting bloody gashes. white. Nearly half lapsed into public action scenes include one of Trigger’s But no matter how much cruelty Rog- domain after Republic sold its assets most famous stunts, galloping next to a ers endured in these later films, he never and closed in 1959. Thereafter most speeding train, ignoring white blasts of lost his good nature: what Rogers/Wit- of Rogers’s films could be seen only in what appear to be threatening steam. ney enthusiast Quentin Tarantino called corrupted, poorly reproduced versions. Trigger wasn’t scheduled for the scene, Rogers’s “common decency.” This Finally Paramount Pictures, which but numerous stunt horses refused to quality made so many children want to owns Republic’s catalogue, rode to go near the train, and “The Old Man,” emulate Rogers that he was second only the rescue. In association with UCLA, as he was known, showed what he to Walt Disney for the sale of merchan- Paramount has impressively restored could do. dise such as comic books, lunch boxes, many of Rogers’s films, although only In 1951, Rogers filed a lawsuit against Republic, claiming he had a Dale Evans, Roy Rogers and William Witney discuss a scene on the set of The Golden Stallion. right to share income from the sale of Witney Family Archive his films to television. He won the first court case but lost on an appeal that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. After 1952’s Son of Paleface (made at Paramount, with Jane Russell and Bob Hope), Rogers never starred in another studio film although he, along with several other TV and film stars, had a cameo in the 1959 United Artists film Alias Jesse James, again star- ring Hope. Rogers said that, although he was at the height of his popularity, other studios joined with Republic to blackball him as a troublemaker for wanting actors to share the income from television residuals. 22 22 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 N WESTER VIDEO Clocking on extrAs on Blu-rAy/DVD releAses American Frontiers: Anthony Mann at Universal is the title of a featurette “extra” on Arrow Films’ new Blu-ray release of The Far Country ($39.95).