Trail of Robin Hood

"Trail of Robin Hood" it should be said, has absolutely nothing to do with Robin Hood. It is though, one of my favorites Rogers westerns. Directed by William Whitney, it's filled with action, hard ridin', sweet singin' and cameos from several western stars which Republic liked to do from time to time.

The story is about Roy coming to the aid of retired cowboy star Jack Holt (playing himself) who is competing with a large company to market Christmas trees. The company headed by Aldrich (Emory Parnell) is trying to buy up the rights to cut the trees from local ranchers. Of course Holt won't sign up. Aldrich's foreman Mitch McCall (Clifton Young) and his henchmen including Murtagh (James Magill) and Whitey (Lane Bradford) do all they can to foil Holt and Rogers efforts.

Aldrich's daughter Toby (Penny Edwards) goes to the camp to try to persuade Holt to sell his trees. But of course she comes over to Roy and Jack in the end. Splinter (Gordon Jones) and his kid sister "Sis" along with a turkey named "Galahad" and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage are also along to help.

When McCall frightens the men who were to drive Holt's wagons in the race to market, Sis calls in several cowboy heroes to help. The stars of Republic's other "B" western series, Rex Allen, Allan "Rocky" Lane and Monte Hale lead the charge. Also pitching in are former cowboy heroes Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Tom Keene, Tom Tyler, Kermit Maynard, William Farnum and reformed bad guy George Cheseboro. Farnum and Holt's careers dated all the way back to the early days of silents. Needless to say the good guys prevail and the picture ends with Roy and Trigger riding off into the sunset amid a snow storm.

Dale Evans, Roy's leading lady both on and off the screen was off having a baby when this picture was made.

"Trail of Robin Hood" released in 1950 proved to be Roy Rogers last Trucolor western. The remaining entries in his series, which ended in 1951, would all be in Black and White.

Jack Holt, playing retired movie star Jack Holt, is getting ready to cut the Christmas trees he sells cheaply as a service. A competing firm is trying to beat him to market, because they're in it for money.

That's about the extent of the story of this movie, with the usual singing, riding and silliness. There's also a zillion old B movie cowboys on hand, their character names their screen names: Rocky Lane, Rex Allen, William Farnum (although he claims to be 'Bill'), Crash Corrigan.... well, only ingenue Penny Aldredge and comic relief Gordon Jones have major roles under any name but their own.

It's Roy Rogers' Christmas movie for 1950 and it's a bit of an extravaganza, William Witney directs with his usual facile hand, John MacBurnie lights the interiors like a series of Rockwell paintings and Dale Evans is strangely absent.

Republic had been spending more money on their Roy Rogers vehicles, and this shows the effect. Even so, the genre was dying. The following year would be Rogers' last in the Bs and the first of his long-running TV series.

Even with the end of the trail so clearly marked, it's a good little B, with George Chesebro getting the best line.

Trail of Robin Hood (1950)

*** (out of 4)

Roy Rogers has to come to the aid of buddy Jack Holt when his Christmas tree market gets attacked by a group of bad men wanting to take over the business and jack up prices. TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD has a title that doesn't make too much sense but I'd say the entire story that takes up the 68-minutes doesn't make much sense. However, if you're coming to a "B" Western for its story then I guess you'd be letdown by most items in the genre as you really can't look at the story too hard. This film is mainly going to appeal to film buffs of the genre who not only get to see Rogers doing his thing but we've got Jack Holt making a return to the genre. It's interesting to note that the story here does have a couple interesting things in it. One is that there's a sequence where it's brought up that people have forgotten old Western stars but they're now getting to know them on television. There's another scene where one of Holt's silent Westerns are shown and this was a good thing because it probably reminded several people in 1950 that the current crop of Western stars all owed something to Holt and others. Not only will this entertain film buffs but the film also features other "B" Western stars making cameo appearances including Rex Allen, Allan "Rocky" Lane, Tom Tyler, Monte Hale, William Farnum, Ray Corrigan, Kermit Maynard and Tom Keene. All of these factors make the film worth watching and of course you get a fine performance from Rogers in the Trucolor glory. Fans of the genre should have a good time with this as long as they don't take the entire Christmas tree thing too serious. Plus there are plenty of good fights and a really fun climax involving a burning bridge.

In one scene, Jack Holt is besieged by a bunch of youngsters who want his autograph. Holt chuckles and says that he was making movies long before any one of them were born. One girl answers, "We know, but we see them on television." At that, Holt chuckles and begins to sign autographs. Oddly enough, this film was shot at a time when even the word "television" was verboten. Rogers had not started his television series yet. The film's locale in a small western town makes it unlikely that any of these children would have a television set. Since Holt's westerns were mostly silent versions of Zane Grey stories, it is doubtful that they would have been shown on television. Cheryl Rogers, Roy and Dale's oldest girl (then age 9) is shown in the scene. The title "Trail of Robin Hood" may not make sense if you are looking for the character of Robin Hood. The idea of a Good Samaritan willing to make Christmas happier for poor children with a Christmas tree is expressed by Jack Holt (who is the Robin Hood figure). Also, Republic westerns were not to be taken seriously, They were pure entertainment designed to entertain kids on a Saturday afternoon. For a dime, you got two westerns, coming attractions, a comedy or cartoon, newsreel and of course a serial. About five hours of entertainment for a dime. You can't get that kind of a bargain anymore.

The title of this film is completely misleading. Ain't nobody robbing from the poor to give to the rich in this Roy Rogers western. Instead Roy plays a U.S. Forestry Inspector (they never say Forest Ranger because Roy is not in the regulation Smoky the Bear outfit)who is guarding the evergreen forests and preventing those who want to cut those trees down before its time at Christmas season.

Oldtime movie star Jack Holt plays himself and he's got a lot of evergreens on his land which adjoins the big spread of tycoon Emory Parnell. Parnell wants to corner the Christmas tree market while Holt wants to give his trees away almost at cost and probably get a nice tax write-off thought that isn't mentioned. Parnell has a daughter, Penny Edwards, who goes down to look after Dad's interests, but when Roy sings a few songs, she melts.

Parnell goes down himself and finds his foreman Clifton Young working a whole racket unto himself to cheat both Holt and Parnell. You might remember Young as the skel who tries to blackmail Humphrey Bogart in Dark Passage. He's just as much a skunk in Trail of Robin Hood. He died tragically however the following year in a hotel fire, the same year as Jack Holt.

Gordon Jones, later Mike the Cop on the Abbott and Costello show, did a few films with Roy as an amiable oaf of a sidekick named Splinters at this time. He has a little sister in this film, Carol Nugent, who is quite the tomboy and constantly showing Jones up.

It turns out Roy needs a lot of help in this film and he gets it from a whole flock of cowboy heroes of several generations. Herbert J. Yates of Republic got Monte Hale, Rex Allen, Rocky Lane, and Ray Corrigan who were all with his studio and a few from past generations like Kermit Maynard, Tom Keene, Tom Tyler, and William Farnum all pitched in to help old friend Holt rout the bag guys.

I kind of liked seeing all these guys on the screen together as wildly improbable though it was. Then again it was B western from Republic so it can only go one way.

We've seen many a racket operate in the west, but cornering the Christmas Tree trade. How low can you sink?