Nevada State Ranger Roy Rogers gets involved with some racketeers who are entrenched with the local Las Vegas casinos and on the other side of this matter he makes time to participate in the towns annual parade Heldorado, which celebrates it becoming a frontier town.
Don't you just hate when the DVD cover tells you that it's the longer cut, but when you watch it you find out it's the edited version
well that's what happen here. Anyhow, I better move on. Usually I wouldn't touch a film like this, but I was looking for a change and so I borrowed a couple of old western flicks off my grandfather. I thought it wouldn't hurt for some nostalgia b-grade Hollywood westerns. Sure thing, after getting into 'Heldorado', it wasn't really my thing and I wouldn't care to lay my eyes on it again
but still it was a fair way to spend a odd 56 minutes of rooting and tooting fun, well kind of in a clean cut way. Now onto the main star Roy Rogers, sure I've heard of him and know him as a singing cowboy, but really that's it. Actually I think this is the first film I've seen of his
I think? Whoops, I almost forgot his white horse Trigger. Is he truly the smartest horse in the movies? I know lot adults would've grown up with Roy Rogers, but I guess I might have appreciated the film more if I did too. Heck, as a child I grew up with John Wayne's westerns because of my grandfather.
The western genre is one of my favourite genres, but like I said I guess I'm the wrong target audience because this b/w typical Hollywood western yarn was kinda lacklustre in the action department and too, it was rather talkie for me. So because of all of that the pacing felt a bit monotone and the song interruptions delayed the viewing for me. But still I got something out of it, if I was able to sit through it. What made it easier to take were the performances by the main leads and surprisingly the humour was worked in rather well, without stretching it. Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes and Dale Evans chemistry worked wonders and when they were on screen they seemed to chew up the scenery. The characters had a nice sense of entertainment and likability about them. The humour between flowed well, with Roger's witty remarks, Gabby's sour face and gags and Evans cheeky style. It was just clever in its light touches. At least Evan's character was a strong willed female instead of the damsel in distress. The plot was reasonably simple, with the usual bad guy's stuff and the hero coming through at the end with a parade as the backdrop. When Roger's was not breaking into a song or performing tricks with Trigger and enjoying the parade he finds some time for looking into this mystery of these racketeers and counterfeit money. There's no real tension to it nor are the tussles between the cowboys overly memorable, but this particular film just has a feel good stance about it. While the three leads might have stood out, the rest of the acting was pretty stuffy and their dialogue was real wooden. On a grand scale the combination between the three will make sure you'll enjoy yourself.
The factor is it's nothing more than a showpiece for Rogers to do his stuff. Decent, but more for the fans.
