Any time you have Roy Rogers and George Gabby Hayes on the same screen it will be a winner. Although the story line was similar to some other westerns, it still held enough twists and differences to keep one interested to the end. Roy was great as always. He seems to have a natural born talent for acting and it was probably because he was just being himself - an easy going, decent person of character that good people would follow anywhere. In this picture he was a man who was trying to put his gun handy ways behind him. Of course, the bad guys wouldn't allow that when they pushed him too far. Also starring was the ever wonderful Gabby Hayes as the owner of a traveling medicine show, with Roy as a trick shooter and singer plus the energetic and cute, Sally Payne as a singer and assistant in the show. Gabby was supposed to be her father. You may remember her playing a flamboyant Belle Star in Roy's "Robin Hood of the Pecos". Something unusual crossed my mind as I watched this in that the good guys were Roy, Gabby and Sally. Yet they were working towns doing a medicine show, and medicine shows were known for the "snake oil" sales of liquids that did nothing for the person but make them drunk or dead. Sally even sold bottles from the wagon and Gabby made the comment he was going to make more if he could find some snake juice. But hey, that's the movies. Now over in town, things were controlled by a group of very bad men including a guy named Ripper played by Hal Taliaferro (aka Wally Wales), Jake Marvel played by Ralf Harolde and Monte Burns played by Jay Novello. Novello is that character actor you have seen so many times playing a little weasel (as in this movie), who also showed great comedy ability playing on I Love Lucy and McHale's Navy to name just a couple. Hal Taliaferro is a name you've seen in numerous movies in a supporting role. Another helper of the bad guys was the sheriff, interestingly played by Monte Blue himself. Most people will remember him as a leading man in the silent movies opposite famous females like the Gish sisters, Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow and Norma Shearer. Roy's love interest was played by Carol Adams whom I am not familiar with. But she reminded me of the girl that plays Elaine on Seinfeld, only Carol Adams had a sweeter, not so hard look about her. One of the stage coach drivers was the greatest stunt man and stunt director of all time, Yakima Canutt. For anyone who wanted western stunts done, including large scale stampedes and fights, they just didn't come any better than Canutt. I'm not going to spoil the movie for you, let's just say it was the battle between good and evil, Roy and certain townsfolk forced to live outside of town vs the bad guys who took away their businesses and murdered friends and family....and Roy was the one man people will always follow to fight the injustices perpetrated by bad guys. As an aside, the head of the bad men was played by Henry Brandon. You may recall him playing the part of the menacing Indian chief Scar, in "The Searchers" with John Wayne. Now here is something only a joker like me would notice. In "Bad Man of Deadwood", I was surprised by the difference in height when Brandon practically towered over Roy when they met in the newspaper office. Well no wonder, Brandon was 6'5" tall. Roy looked to be a more normal height of maybe 5'11" there abouts - don't know for sure. I thought it strange because I remembered in "The Searchers", when The Duke and Scar came face to face for the first time, they stared eye to eye level. Looking up The Duke explained it, as he was 6' 4-1/2" tall. I never realized John Wayne was that tall. As you can see, I don't analyze movies so much as I just enjoy them (or not) for what they are, and am more interested in the tidbits and history of the actors and the film. "Bad Man of Deadwood" is well worth watching. The acting was great and the inter-relationships between the actors was well written and also well directed by Joseph Kane. If you like the old style westerns you will like this one. And yet, it went a step beyond the normal western to make for very entertaining viewing.
