The Far Frontier

Roy Rogers is back on border patrol, investigating the smuggling of criminals across the U.S.-Mexican border. Clayton Moore (as Tom Sharper) is a fellow border patrolman who discovers the wicked smugglers, and is left for dead; instead, he gets amnesia. Andy Devine (as "Cookie") is a helpful judge, and Gail Davis (as Susan) adds femininity. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage add harmony.

Production-line Rogers western story, with better than average performances. The supporting players are rather good, and there are a few exciting moments. The song dubbing is distractingly poor, and the story very weak -- you'll wonder about some story contrivances... Rogers and Moore (later "The Lone Ranger") have a jail-cell fistfight; incredibly, Rogers beats Moore up to cure his amnesia!

*** The Far Frontier (1948) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, Gail Davis, Andy Devine

The version I found on Amazon Prime is the shortened television version. I am mentioning this because perhaps the full version, if it's even available, might be a bit different.

The story begins with Roy taking some cattle over the border. Out of the blue, a truck comes barreling along...nearly hitting him and scattering the cattle. Clearly, the drivers are no-goodnicks. Soon, the truck passes through the border checkpoint...but the officer there spots something odd and gives chase. The baddies inside the truck bash the agent over the head...nearly killing him and leaving him for dead.

What were these baddies up to and why would they attack the border guard? Well, it turns out they are smuggling in wanted criminals inside barrels. But the American public doesn't need to worry about this contraband, as the jerks transporting them soon toss the barrels (with the criminals inside) into a reservoir!! Clearly these smugglers are kindness impaired!

As for the border agent, the man in charge of all these shenanigans has a plan. He hates the agent's father...and he uses the injured man against his own father. How does he do this and how does Roy save the day? See the film.

This film should be accompanied with the message on the screen saying 'Kids....don't try this at home!'. Why? Because the border patrolman has amnesia after the beating and Roy cures him by beating him up...with the assumption that another head injury will restore his memory!! This is insane....though the rest of the film is reasonably enjoyable and not nearly as stupid!

I was intrigued with the premise of The Far Frontier, cowboys in the smuggling racket where the items smuggled are criminals back and forth from the USA. I could have seen it done in a much bigger feature film.

This particular Roy Rogers movie while observing some parameters for the Saturday afternoon kiddie trade was a pretty violent outing for Roy. In this he's a border patrolman which is his involvement with bringing down this particular racket.

One of his fellow border patrolmen is Clayton Moore who stumbles on the racket and gets clipped on the head with a wrench and left on the trail. Moore is the son of Francis Ford, John's brother, and the amnesia he develops allows him to be framed for a murder that was committed for no other reason than to frame him. Francis Ford is a long time enemy of Robert Strange who was the head of the smuggling operation.

But that particular murder is just one of many acts committed by Strange's men under the leadership of his number Roy Barcroft one of the great B western villains ever. The crimes Barcroft commits here must have staggered those Saturday matinée kids in 1948.

Roy's leading lady in this film is Gail Davis, usually found opposite Gene Autry in his westerns. Also along is Andy Devine who did several films with Roy in the Forties.

There is a scene toward the beginning of the film where Barcroft and some of the criminals they're smuggling have a disagreement as Barcroft holds them up for more money. These guys are wise-guys and it would have made a great film premise to have their friends evening the score with these goniff cowboys.

Francis Ford is the former US Marshall of the district, and now the town's biggest landowner. Mostly, though, he's proud of his son, Clayton Moore, who's an officer of the border patrol. He's worried, because Tom is missing, and former scalawag and now unaccountably successful businessman Robert Strange accuses the missing lad of some nefarious doings. So Roy Rogers whups him, because Ford isn't up to it. When Moore shows up after a bank robbery, judge/sheriff Andy Devine has to arrest him, but he has amnesia.

There are some surprisingly corny bits in this Roy Rogers vehicle, and some fairly shocking ones too: we never see the dead people in the barrels, thank goodness. But even though the audience is informed of what's going on, there's still some fun in watching this practiced troupe figure it out under the direction of William Witney and the camera of Jack Marta; Republic didn't stick to the classic Seven Western Plots for Roy, and there are always a few good songs between Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. In this one, the comic "I Still Love The West" is the best.

In one scene the bad guys are rolling barrels off a truck to stop Roy Rogers and Trigger. Trained jumpers were 'doubling' Trigger, but found the barrels too frightening and shied off. Trigger was finally allowed to try, ridden by Roy's stunt double Joe Yrigoyen. Joe ordered Trigger to jump too soon for a stationary object. Trigger trusted Joe and jumped when Joe commanded. He cleared the barrel, but a bit awkwardly. Trigger did better on the 2nd barrel. By now he thought it was fun, and for the rest of the scene you can see Trigger moving from side to side so he can jump as many barrels as possible! We read the book and got the movie just so we could watch Trigger jumping the barrels in this scene.