Singing star Roy Rogers returns to his home to find that the the money the town raised to finance their much needed dam project has been stolen. The town desperate for water agrees to sell their interest in the dam over to Allison (Trevor Bardette). Roy suspicious of Allison tries to stop the rest of the town, headed by cranky Sheriff Sutherland (Robert Homans) from signing over their water rights. Aided by Gabby Whittaker (Gabby Hayes), his daughter (Sally Payne), and the Sons of the Pioneers, Roy tries to thwart plans to steal the town's water. If that means Roy has to commit a few felonies along the way to stop the bad guys, then so be it.
Released in 1941 this Joseph Kane directed entry in the Roy Rogers series marks a change in the style of Roy's westerns. His prior movies were contemporaneous and historically oriented with Roy playing parts like Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill. Red River Valley ushers Roy into the Automobile Age Western where people hitch their horses beside station wagons. Kane over a period of several years shifted to more musically oriented releases eventually changing Roy's singing cowboy movies into musical lollapaloozas. This one strikes a nice balance between the singing and the action. Roy is re-united with his former group, The Son's of the Pioneers, who get in several well done numbers.
This movie also marks the first teaming of Roy with future sidekick Pat Brady. Brady would continue to be featured and become a mainstay of Roy's movies continuing on through Roy's television series in the 1950's. Despite the fact that Roy's best movies lay ahead of him under the direction of William Witney, this movie maybe more than any other, marks the beginning of what most most fans would soon come to remember as the classic Roy Roger's Western.
