Man from Cheyenne

Before talking about "Man from Cheyenne", I should point out that I watched a trimmed version. During the 1950s, many old cowboy stars had television shows....and their movies were often trimmed down to TV time slot length. The trimming of this one isn't terrible...and eight minutes. Some times, 20 or more minutes are hacked out of it...and the trimming is noticeable.

An unusual feature in many old B-westerns is to set them in the present day....but with everyone dressed as cowboys and plots which would have been just as appropriate for the mid-late 19th century. So, in a film like "Man from Cheyenne" you have cattle rustlers....who use trucks! Such things were common in Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies...as well as with a few of the other film cowboys.

When the story begins, you see cattle being stolen...and hidden in a cave! Weird...but I saw this in a Hopalong Cassidy film. Roy gets involved when the government and the local Cattlemens Association are looking for some tough guy to go investigate...and that tough guy is, naturally, Roy. But what he and the Association don't know is that the leader of these baddies is a woman!

So is the film worth your time? Yes, though I think the writer wasn't willing to quite commit to a villainess in the film. She was, in some ways, presented as a 'nice' bad girl...which isn't very realistic. I think it's probably because in B-westerns there was almost an unwritten rule against a completely sociopathic lady villain...they often had SOME good quality about them. And, they often ended up dying by the end of the film! I personally wanted to see her with no redeeming qualities whatsoever! But, I know I am in the minority on this one...and must admit that this is a very good Rogers film....enjoyable throughout.

By the way, early in the film I really enjoyed one of the musical numbers, as Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers sing a dandy rendition of "Happy Cowboy". Sometimes the music in Roy's films were more a distraction than anything else...but here it was quite welcome.