Bells of San Angelo

I've never been a fan of Roy's, even while I watched his 1950s TV

show as a kid. I wanted to buy one RR movie, just to see if I had

changed my mind about his films. I picked this one because a

couple of sources had stated that this was his best film, & was

"tougher" than most of his films. I don't like songs with my

westerns, so of course there was far too much music for my taste

here (I lost count at seven). The comedy, supplied by Andy Devine,

was pretty good (& actually quite funny near the end of the film), a

big improvement over Smiley Burnett, but nowhere near as good

as Gabby Hayes. Dale was OK as the heroine, & better than I

thought she would be, a better actor than her husband. Indeed,

there were a couple of very gritty fight scenes where RR took a

beating (& surprisingly, this was acknowledged in later scenes

where he was seen with bruises). But overall, not an exciting

experience for me. The plot was weak & the music disconnected

what little action there was. For the sake of comparison, I'm going

to try a very small dose of Gene Autry before going back to the

greatest of all cowboy stars, William Boyd!