Cowboy and the Senorita

In a joint book about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans that I recently read, it seems as though Herbert J. Yates at Republic Pictures had the idea that Roy could use a regular female singing star, the better to boost the audiences for his number one B picture cowboy at the time. He had under contract one Frances Octavia Smith renamed Dale Evans who had done about nine films in minor roles. She was most prominent in John Wayne's In Old Oklahoma as a second female lead.

Dale was understandably reluctant to do the film. Although she was born in Uvalde, Texas her thing was not exactly country/western. She was a band singer and a good one with Anson Weeks. Her ambition was to do musical comedy, she wanted very much to do the lead in Oklahoma and later do Annie Get Your Gun. But Yates was the boss so she agreed and the rest is history.

The film they were assigned to is Cowboy and the Senorita and truth be told it's not one of the great westerns of all time. Roy and sidekick Guinn Williams get themselves involved in saving an inheritance of a gold mine from the grasp of villain John Hubbard who's about to marry Dale, the older of the two sisters. Younger sister Mary Lee has run away because she dislikes her prospective brother-in-law so much. Roy and Big Boy save the day of course.

Cowboy and the Senorita is only important in that it was the first teaming of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. They did several pictures over the next few years and eventually married after Roy's first wife Arlene Wilkins died suddenly. After that Dale only teamed with Roy occasionally until they went to television as she was busy raising Roy's kids, her son by previous marriages and their children.

Until I saw this film I never knew Guinn Williams had done any films with Roy as sidekick. The version I have is the edited one for television and I think it's a lot of his footage that was edited out. Apparently he had a rivalry going with Fuzzy Knight that looked interesting and funny and I'd certainly like to have seen more of it.

A historic landmark and it shows Herbert J. Yates apparently did have good business sense when it didn't involve his wife Vera Hruba Ralston. On the other hand he could have asked Roy to take Vera as his next leading lady.

This is a pretty good Roy Rogers feature, with an interesting and rather involved story, plus Dale Evans, Mary Lee, and some variety entertainment. The story has Roy and his sidekick (played this time by Big Boy Williams) befriending a young woman who is looking for a hidden mine, and trying to protect her interests from the shifty Allen, who meanwhile is working to discredit Roy. Quite a bit happens after that, and there are a lot of interesting developments even after devoting a good amount of the running time to songs and musical numbers. It works pretty well, and should satisfy any of Rogers's fans.

Cowboy and the Senorita (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Roy Rogers and 'Teddy Bear' (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams) show up in a small town looking for jobs when they're befriend by a young girl (Mary Lee) and her keeper (Dale Evans). Rogers and Bear are given jobs looking after the young girl and it turns out that she has a valuable mine, which a greedy man (John Hubbard) is trying to con her out of. After several double crosses Rogers tries to get evidence to show what's going on. COWBOY AND THE SENORITA isn't the best film Rogers ever made but it's a decent "B" Western that is also remembered for being the first film between Rogers and his future wife Evans. Overall the story here certainly isn't anything too special as the entire "ripping off someone for their mine" had been done to death by the time talkies came into play. With that said, the director and cast do good enough of a job to at least make you care for the characters and want to see the bad punished and the good walking away without any trouble. It certainly doesn't hurt that the cast members are in such fine form and this of course starts with Rogers who once again plays that kind-hearted soul just doing what's right. That laid back style really comes across good here and that chemistry with Evans is on full display. The two really seem to be flirtatious throughout the film and they manage to mix it up quite well. Lee is also very impressive in her part as is Hubbard as the hissing villain. It was pretty funny seeing Williams in a Western like this as he was often seen in gangster pictures from the likes of Warner. There's certainly nothing ground breaking to be found here but if you're a fan of low-budget Westerns then this here is a decent time killer. It should be noted that the most common version out there is missing nearly twenty-minutes worth of footage most of which is song and dance numbers.

The marriage of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans produced one of the most financially successful couple in the history of recording, television and film. Their romantic coupling and financial empire had its roots in May 1944 "Cowboy and the Señorita," where Rogers and Evans appeared together for the first time on the screen.

"I knew that being the girl lead in a cowboy movie wasn't her greatest dream in life," remembered Rogers on his first day of filming with her, "but she never gave it less than her all. When we weren't rehearsing or filming a scene she made me feel comfortable because she was so easy to talk to." Evans added, "Mr. Herbert Yates, head of Republic Pictures, who was certain that with my real Texas background I was the right gal for the part of Isabel Martinez. I was supposed to be a raven-haired beauty, and as 'the senorita', I had to speak with a heavy Spanish accent. Mr. Kane used to kid me about my delivery, saying it sound like "Si, Si, you'all!" In his ninth year in film, Rogers was one of Republic Pictures most popular actors. Having an uncanny business sense, he insisted in his contract to the rights of his name, likeness and singing voice. With Roy Rogers action figures, records and even a comic strip, the 'King of the Cowboys' had more items in his name at the time than any other living person besides Walt Disney. He was in the Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars sixteen years running beginning in 1939. Roy was happily married to Grace Wilkins, who had called the radio station he was singing on and said she would bake him a pie if he would yodel. In "Cowboy and the Señorita" Roy was partnered with actor Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as Teddy Bear. They're down on their luck after they've been fired from a restaurant job. The two are accused of kidnapping Chip (Mary Lee), a runaway teenager who knows where her late father's hidden treasure is located in a mine. Ysobel Martinez (Dale Evans), Chips older sister, hires the two accused kidnappers, who want to straightened everything out.

Dale Evans was already a popular recording singer in her own right. Riding the coattails of her familiar voice, the Uvalde, Texas born Frances Octavia Smith had been in nearly a dozen movies beginning in 1942. "Sure I had liked cowboy pictures as a child, but that was as a child," Evans said when she heard she was appearing in only her second Western in "Cowboy and the Señorita." "As a professional actor, my goals were grander than that. I thought I wanted to be in a sophisticated musical comedy something debonair, urbane, and adult." Evans, 32, was on her third marriage raising a thirteen year old son. Eloping at age 14 to marry her first husband, Thomas Fox, she was blessed by a smooth singing voice which enabled her to get a radio job after her husband abandoned her at 17. The name Francis Smith didn't suit the radio manager, who decided to name her Dale Evans. "Dale's a boy's name!" Francis protested. "And what does Evans have to do with me?" "First of all," said her new boss, "the woman I like the most on the screen in silent pictures is named Dale. And as for Evans: Your name is concocted for radio announcers. It is a very euphonious name. It cannot be mispronounced, and it is hard to misspell it. So that is your name, Dale Evans." The former Francis Smith rose to prominence as an orchestra singer while having a gig at a large Chicago radio station. She was asked to screen test for the lead in Bing Crosby's 1942 "Holiday Inn." She didn't get the part, but Republic Pictures came calling. "Cowboy and the Señorita" was the first of three films in 1944 Roy and Dale appeared together. "I got to like Dale right away, Roy said. "She was a person who always looked like she had just stepped out of the shower, real fresh and clean; and she was a good sport, too, carrying her weight in each and every scene and never complaining when we had to work long hours and do stunts that wore us out." Dale took an offer to appear on a regular radio program with Garry Moore and Jimmy Durante in addition to her film work, causing a breakup with her third husband, Robert Butts, who divorced her in 1946. Meanwhile, Roy Rogers saw his wife Grace die from complications of a child birth of their son Roy, Jr. ("Dusty"). Roy and Dale continued to work together on and off for the next year. On an eight-week rodeo tour, Roy was sitting on his horse with Dale by his side about to enter the Chicago Stadium for their grand entrance when he took out a gold ring with a ruby and placed it on her finger, asking her to marry him. The woman who wrote Rogers' trademark song "Happy Trails," readily agreed.

"Roy is steady and dependable," described Evans late in life. "I am hasty and impulsive. He is such a quiet fellow, and he has a way of taking life as it comes. No one has ever accused me of being shy or easygoing. But the differences between us were all to the good; we each had strengths that were good for the other one. When we were together, I felt balanced." The partnership was one of Hollywood's most enduring marriages, ending when Rogers died of heart failure in July 1998 at 86, while Dale Evens, "The Queen of the West," passed away three years later of the same disease in February 2001, at 88.

This film essentially begins with a teenage girl named "Chip Williams" (Mary Lee) running away from home and hiding out in a cave in a nearby wooded area. As luck would have it, two cowboys by the names of "Roy Rogers" (as himself) and "Teddy Bear" (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams) come riding by and find a bracelet that Chip had recently lost. Thinking nothing of it, Teddy Bear hangs on to it and they subsequently continue on their way to a nearby ranch in search of employment. Unfortunately, when they get there the bracelet is recognized as belonging to Chip and as a result both Roy and Teddy Bear become chief suspects in her abduction. What few people realize, however, is that there is much more to Chip's disappearance than meets the eye. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film was not only clearly dated but also suffered from a general lack of excitement as well. To be sure, there is plenty of singing, horseback riding and cowboy romance if a person is looking for those particular items. But quite frankly, I just wasn't that impressed with most of it and for that reason I have rated this grade-B Western accordingly. Slightly below average.