Pals of the Golden West

The Border Patrol calls in their ace troubleshooter Roy Rogers to put the kibosh on a cross-border cattle smuggling operation in order to control an outbreak of Hoof and Mouth Disease. Roy teams up with fellow Border Patrol Officer (Pat Brady) and local newspaper photographer Pinky Lee to bust the racket headed by murderous scoundrels Lucky Grillo and Ward Sloan (Anthony Caruso & Roy Barcroft). To bring the bad guys to justice Roy must work around the meddling of pesky out of town reporter Cathy Marsh and local newspaper woman Elena Madera (Dale Evans & Estelita Rodriguez).

Director William Witney once again revs up the action. Complete with fisticuffs, gunfights and a couple of bear attacks, Pals of the Golden West is a fitting end to Roy's run as a silver screen hero and an end to a great stretch of movies with Witney at the helm. In an uncharacteristic scene Roy actually bleeds after a fight here. Roy is once again pitted against frequent nemesis and veteran Republic Pictures Bad Guy Roy Barcroft, who just never seemed to learn that crime doesn't pay. It was also the third and last of the unusual pairings with sidekick Pinky Lee. However well intentioned, the cartoon like antics that served Pinky well as a children's show entertainer just didn't add much to his trio of movies with Roy.

In the final scene Dale bids Roy farewell and announces that Roy has taken a "new assignment in Capitol City". With that, after a string of over a hundred movies, Trigger rears up, Roy waves good-bye and along with Bullet, all literally ride off into the sunset. However the best was yet to come. Fans only had to wait about six weeks for the start of the long running Roy Rogers Television Series. Launched just before New years in 1951 the "Roy Rogers Show" would be remembered and have a lasting influence on a new generation of viewers. Roy would be joined by "Queen of the West" Dales Evans, Trigger, Bullet and sidekick Pat Brady for the entire six year run of the series.

Happy Trails.