Along the Navajo Trail

My major memory from having seen this little gem as a kid is that Roy never wore his guns. He had them packed in his gear, and even had a name for each pistol: "Annie" (for Oakley) and "Jane" (for "Calamity"). But mostly he let Gabby wear them. When Roy would leave for something dangerous, Gabby would give him one of them to stick in his belt: "Better take Jane along for company." The byplay between Roy and Dale, moving from antagonists to buddies (as they did in many of their early pictures), was also fun. Dale is the owner of a ranch where Roy, pretending to be an itinerant musician, is working undercover. When Dale fires a warning pistol shot at the place where he's camped, his response is to ask if she can think of a word that rhymes with Saskatoon. Fun stuff, in a more innocent age.

"Along the Navajo Trail" is a very standard Roy Rogers film that's filled with what you'd expect....Dale Evans, Gabby Hayes, Estelita Rodriguez, the Sons of the Pioneers as well as a very typical baddie.

The story is about a local baddie, Bentley (Douglas Fowley). He and his men are terrorizing the countryside trying to get the ranchers to sell out to him. But it' not because he wants to keep the land...he plans on selling it to an oil company wanting to put in a pipeline. The problems are that they cannot prove that he's behind all the terror AND the last agent who was sent to investigate was murdered. Can Roy manage to get to the bottom of everything?

The answer to the question above is, of course, yes. Roy ALWAYS catches the baddie and it's not any surprise. It's how he does that you need to tune in to see! Overall, pretty much what you'd expect and want out of a Rogers film.

You would think that with a film entitled Along The Navajo Trail this western might have something to do with Indians. Nary an Indian will be seen in this modern western where Roy Rogers is an undercover US Marshal investigating the killing of one of his colleagues.

That colleague was investigating a series of bad breaks that seem to be happening to Dale Evans and her father Sam Flint on their ranch. No one can figure out who could be plotting against them or what they would want on the ranch it having no mineral value of any kind.

Along for the ride are Gabby Hayes as the Flint/Evans foreman and a clan of gypsies headed by chief Nestor Paiva and his most fetching daughter Estelita Rodriguez. Some really good scenes are involving Paiva and Gabby as Paiva gives some credence to the ethnic stereotyping of gypsies being really shrewd traders and downright cheats. In fact that last gag on Gabby involves a federal crime. That might have carried a joke too far.

Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers aid Roy in singing Nolan's own composition Cool Water and Roy and Dale sing Along The Navajo Trail which was having a real burst of popularity with the best selling record that Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters made of it. And there's a really nice car chase scene, more typical of today's films where the villain meets a bad end.

Lot's of reasons for folks of all ages to like Along The Navajo Trail.

U.S. Marshall Roy Rogers goes undercover to investigate a string of shootings and the murder of a Cattleman's Association Operative on the Alastair Ranch, owned by Breck Alastair and his daughter Lorry (Sam Flint and Dale Evans). Roy soon uncovers a land swindle plot masterminded by J. Richard Bentley and his no-account henchman Rusty Channing (Douglas Fowley and Roy Barcroft)to grab the ranch for an oil pipeline right-of-way. With the help of Gabby Whitaker (Hayes) and an itinerant band of gypsies Roy sets to bring the scalawags to justice.

"Along the Navajo Trail" is directed by Frank McDonald who helmed a handful of Roy's Movies between the Joseph Kane years and the later William Whitney films. McDonald began to transition Roy's movies from the World War II years musical extravaganzas to more of the automobile-age western format, though this one still features Roy singing several tunes, gone are the large scale song and dance numbers. Additionally The Son's of the Pioneers sing their iconic classic Cool Water. The following year McDonald would direct what many fans consider Roy's best movie My Pal Trigger.

While Navajo Trail is a pretty average effort, most of Roy's fans and B-Western fans in general, will enjoy this one. 66 minutes of decent entertainment.

5 of 10 stars