Trail of Robin Hood

Jack Holt, playing retired movie star Jack Holt, is getting ready to cut the Christmas trees he sells cheaply as a service. A competing firm is trying to beat him to market, because they're in it for money.

That's about the extent of the story of this movie, with the usual singing, riding and silliness. There's also a zillion old B movie cowboys on hand, their character names their screen names: Rocky Lane, Rex Allen, William Farnum (although he claims to be 'Bill'), Crash Corrigan.... well, only ingenue Penny Aldredge and comic relief Gordon Jones have major roles under any name but their own.

It's Roy Rogers' Christmas movie for 1950 and it's a bit of an extravaganza, William Witney directs with his usual facile hand, John MacBurnie lights the interiors like a series of Rockwell paintings and Dale Evans is strangely absent.

Republic had been spending more money on their Roy Rogers vehicles, and this shows the effect. Even so, the genre was dying. The following year would be Rogers' last in the Bs and the first of his long-running TV series.

Even with the end of the trail so clearly marked, it's a good little B, with George Chesebro getting the best line.