rocky-40

Surprised to find this movie is practically a scene-by-scene repeat of the 1937 "Rustlers Valley." Gabby Hayes (Windy) did the part Andy Clyde does here, and Russell Hayden (Lucky) does the Jay Kirby role. William Boyd must've had deja vu. Both are good pictures, but I had no idea the Hoppys reused any of their scripts. Interesting to see a whole new supporting cast in the various roles in the two films. Only Boyd as Hoppy played the same role. Both movies start with Hayden, or Kirby, being chased by a posse and riding off a cliff into a river. He is believed drowned, but survives and gets help from Hoppy and Windy or California in trying to clear himself of a bank robbery accusation.

My major memory from having seen this little gem as a kid is that Roy never wore his guns. He had them packed in his gear, and even had a name for each pistol: "Annie" (for Oakley) and "Jane" (for "Calamity"). But mostly he let Gabby wear them. When Roy would leave for something dangerous, Gabby would give him one of them to stick in his belt: "Better take Jane along for company." The byplay between Roy and Dale, moving from antagonists to buddies (as they did in many of their early pictures), was also fun. Dale is the owner of a ranch where Roy, pretending to be an itinerant musician, is working undercover. When Dale fires a warning pistol shot at the place where he's camped, his response is to ask if she can think of a word that rhymes with Saskatoon. Fun stuff, in a more innocent age.

RKO's post World War II Tim Holt/Richard Martin series produced some of the best B-westerns of the '40s, and this was one, supposedly the first movie in which a father and son played a father and son (former leading man Jack Holt and son Tim). Way ahead of its time, it deals with everything from the generation gap to spouse abuse. The hero even falls for a married woman, normally a no-no in formula series westerns. What's more, he doesn't win a single fight -- but he still comes out on top. Great cast, including Paul Hurst (Monte Hale's movie sidekick), Robert Bray (of future "Lassie" fame), Steve Brodie, and Richard Martin as Chito Jose Gonzales Bustamonte Rafferty, a role he had in three series (the earlier ones being with Robert Mitchum and James Warren).