The Far Frontier

Francis Ford is the former US Marshall of the district, and now the town's biggest landowner. Mostly, though, he's proud of his son, Clayton Moore, who's an officer of the border patrol. He's worried, because Tom is missing, and former scalawag and now unaccountably successful businessman Robert Strange accuses the missing lad of some nefarious doings. So Roy Rogers whups him, because Ford isn't up to it. When Moore shows up after a bank robbery, judge/sheriff Andy Devine has to arrest him, but he has amnesia.

There are some surprisingly corny bits in this Roy Rogers vehicle, and some fairly shocking ones too: we never see the dead people in the barrels, thank goodness. But even though the audience is informed of what's going on, there's still some fun in watching this practiced troupe figure it out under the direction of William Witney and the camera of Jack Marta; Republic didn't stick to the classic Seven Western Plots for Roy, and there are always a few good songs between Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. In this one, the comic "I Still Love The West" is the best.