Susanna Pass

I do have to wonder whether in these days of terrorism and the fluctuating oil market, a film like Susanna Pass could be made today and just who the villain is.

Roy Rogers is a fish and game warden for the state of California and he weighs in with his good offices in a fight between two brothers, Robert Emmett Keane and Lucien Littlefield, one bad and one good.

Bad brother is newspaper editor Keane who's a rich guy looking to get richer. And that would be at the expense of good brother Lucien Littlefield who's got a piece of land on which he's created an artificial lake and uses it as a fish hatchery. He's assisted in this worthy endeavor by Dale Evans who is an ichthyologist.

But there's oil under that lake, black gold, Texas tea as that old TV theme used to say. Keane is in cahoots with escaped convict Douglas Fowley to get that land by fair means or foul, mostly foul.

Later on a different view of the oil situation and drilling underwater would be voiced in the Anthony Mann/James Stewart film, Thunder Bay.

I'm willing to bet that former president Herbert Hoover who was a serious fresh water fisherman would have endorsed this film. I'll bet he saw it when out and loved it. Especially with that valedictory that Roy gives about the youth of America getting out in the fresh air and enjoying fishing as our forefathers did. Hoover was also a founder and spokesperson for the Boys Clubs of America as well.

Hopefully that oil is still under that lake in Susanna Pass so we can get it out when needed in a pinch.