The Royal Rodeo

Royal Rodeo, The (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Silly and rather predictable Western/Musical from Warner has a young King (Scotty Beckett) looking up to cowboy star Bill Stevens (John Payne). The King eventually gets to meet his hero when the traveling rodeo comes to town and sure enough, the King is going to need to be saved from a bad assistant. This film has a few nice things going for it but not the items you might expect. Payne, before becoming a star, manages to be pretty good here even if his line reading is a tad bit hollow. The rodeo stuff is rather bland as we've seen the stunts done various times before and there's really nothing new added to them here. Where the film does succeed is with the music, which includes tracks such as 'Yankee Doodle', 'Oh! Susanna', 'The Good Old American Way' and a couple others. Another plus is the Technicolor, which really looks nice even if the print on Turner Classic Movies is somewhat faded in certain scenes.

A Warner Brothers Short Subject.

An American cowboy tries to foil the abduction of the young king of Avania during THE ROYAL RODEO he's presenting at the castle.

This pleasant Technicolor diversion, a sort of Grustark Goes West, mixes the elements of court intrigue and rodeo performers with a couple of songs and a little action. John Payne plays the cowboy hero, Cliff Edwards (sans ukulele) is his sidekick, and Scotty Becket is the boy monarch.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

In the small European nation Avania, boy king Scotty Beckett (as the small king) likes reading about the western exploits of American cowboy star John Payne (as Bill Stevens). The kid is thrilled when Mr. Payne visits Avania, with his traveling rodeo show. A command performance is arranged. Payne sings "That's the Way to Be a Buckaroo" to young Beckett. The abduction of Beckett and pretty blonde Lucile Fairbanks (as Marianne) leads to a western chase. Payne and comic sidekick Cliff Edwards (as Shorty) also sing a patriotic American song to Beckett, who appears ready to immigrate. This short story looks like a showcase for Payne, who certainly shows star quality, and others. Also getting easy camera attention, Ms. Fairbanks is from that family (the niece of Hollywood super-star Douglas Fairbanks). "The Royal Rodeo" is photographed in beautiful Technicolor by Charles Boyle, and everything looks great.

****** The Royal Rodeo (11/25/39) George Amy ~ John Payne, Scotty Beckett, Cliff Edwards, Lucile Fairbanks

Left-over sets from THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX are used extensively for this lavish Technicolor short in sumptuous color. Obviously, Warner Bros. had spent so much on all the costumes and sets for those films that they put them to use in this short subject featuring JOHN PAYNE in one of his earliest singing roles. (He later joined Alice Faye at Fox in a series of musicals, years before A MIRACLE ON 34th STREET).

SCOTTY BECKETT, who played the son of many a Warner star during his childhood, plays the King of a small European country who is dazzled by American cowboys and is delighted when the rodeo comes to the village with JOHN PAYNE, LUCILLE FAIRBANKS and CLIFF EDWARDS in the spotlight.

Beckett is abducted by a Regent who wants to become the king but saved, of course, by his cowboy hero Payne. Payne and the cast do a few musical numbers, including a jaunty ditty called "In the Good Old American Way", and with the young king returned to the throne there's a happy ending for everyone.

Produced on what looks like a major budget, the color is excellent and the familiar sets look better than ever.

It was a Saturday and I was clicking through the channels when I came upon this starting on TCM. It had John Payne and as I am a fan, I stopped. At first I thought this might have been colorized as the technicolor was incredibly bright. I knew Payne had a good voice and you get an opportunity to hear him hear several times. The story here is incidental as the appeal to American patriotism in 1939. WW II was underway in Europe and Hollywood was trying to get the public geared up for the eventual entry of America; a fate sealed by Dec 7, 1941. If you, like me, stumble across this curio, give it a watch. Honestly, except for a few codgers, I doubt this will ever find an audience anymore.