In the 1950s, TV westerns were the rage. And, to capitalize on their popularity, many of the famous 1930s-50s B-western stars had television shows. But there was a problem...the networks wanted to fit these old movies into television time slots. To do this, they trimmed many of the films...which would explain why "Heart of the Golden West" runs only 53 minutes instead of the time listed on IMDB. There might be a complete version out there...but I haven't found it.
"Heart of the Golden West" is a most unusual film because unlike nearly all other B-westerns, this one features the hero with TWO sidekicks....Gabby Hayes and Smiley Burnett (who had been Gene Autry's sidekick, though at this time Autry was serving with the Army Air Corps in WWII). Rogers himself never served in the war (the same can be said for Burnett)....and as a result of Autry's absence, when he returned from the war, Autry was no longer the big western star at Republic Studios...it was Rogers. Fair or not, this is why Burnett is also in this film as well as a few others of Roy's films made during this period.
When the story begins, Lambert's nasty workers very impolitely inform the ranchers that he's doubling the rates to ship their cattle to market...and there's nothing they can do about it. Roy has a plan...to ship the cattle using Colonel Popen's riverboats. But Popen (Walter Catlett) hates the west and has a weird phobia about it. He assumes if he come west, he'll be killed by Indians or outlaws....and Lambert knows about this and sends out his men to make the town look like a lawless and horrible town!
I was actually very impressed by the makup crew in this film. It's very difficult to tell that it's Catlett playing the Colonel, as he's sporting a lot of fake (but realistic looking) facial hair and a wig. Catlett was also pretty funny in the role as this phobic man...and it was enjoyable watching all sorts of terrible things happen to his character!
I was also impressed with the look of the film thanks to the location shooting in Lone Pine and Mammoth Lakes, California. It's a lovely area and many westerns and non-westerns have been filmed there...especially at nearby Lone Pine. Seeing Mount Whitney and the other mountains made this an especially pretty black & white western. Combining this great location with the action and lovely singing (much better than usual....with the Sons of the Pioneers AND a great black chorus providing some nice tunes).
As for the story, I generally like it because its plot was so unusual and the comedy GENERALLY worked. I say generally because the main story about the Colonel and Lambert's efforts to scare him was both funny and entertaining. What I hated was the 'funny' bit with Smiley and Gabby pretending to be a horse...it was just plain stupid....and a bit embarrassing to watch. Overall, the good far outweighs the bad in this picture and it's a B-western well worth your time. I would have given it a 9 (an unheard of score for a B-western for me) but the scene with the fake horse was so bad that I had to take off a point to make it a still respectable 8.
