Under California Stars

Roy Rogers finishes his latest picture. He and Trigger head to their ranch to discover that Andy Devine has hired a lot of new hands, all of whom look like him, because they're cousins: all except the new horse trainer, Jane Frazee. But such pleasantries are discarded when some men who have been rounding up and butchering wild horses on his land. Roy stops them, and they decide that it will be much more profitable to kidnap Trigger and hold him for ransom. Roy is willing to pay, but then they start killing people....

Roy moves into color productions with this one; the print I looked at was not in great shape, obscuring Jack Marta's usual fine compositions and scenery shots. Wade Crosby makes a fine mean villain, and George Lloyd an interesting conflicted one. Roy, the Sons of the Pioneer, Andy, and Miss Frazee get some nice singing in as usual, and we get to see Roy ride another, uncredited horse. Although the story seems a little sketchy at times -- perhaps it had to be edited a touch more tightly than usual -- there are the usual nice stunt touches to keep the audience happy.

This film has about the same visual appeal as My Friend Flicka,

with it's brilliantly colorful Trucolor camerawork. The color

enhances greatly a film that is still mostly enjoyable. Though

highly dated, at times it's even suspenseful and get pretty exciting

towards the end, when Roy Rogers and his friends go to rescue

Trigger, who is billed as the smartest horse in pictures, and who

comes across as just that. Roy is charismatic and does all the

singing and horse wrangling like a pro, why shouldn't he?, and the

rest of the cast lend decent performances. Michael Chapin is

probably the best of the cast, after Roy, making his role as the

token star-struck kid seem not too predictable. Jane Frazee, on

the other hand, comes across as one of the dumbest leading

ladies ever. So, it's amusing and squeaky clean entertainment for

all the ages, but nothing superb. But then, it really wasn't

supposed to be.

In Under California Stars, Roy Rogers plays exactly who he is, Roy Rogers, B western star. The film opens with him shooting a last scene of his latest film and now he's headed back to his own ranch. In the meantime a star struck kid played by Michael Chapin gets a job at Roy's ranch and witnesses a dastardly crime, the kidnapping of Trigger by some really low criminals who want $100,000.00 or they'll shoot the palomino icon.

Every kid in America would have been up in arms over this had word got out. But as a previous reviewer said, the whole thing is handled locally. Roy's studio, which would have been Republic Pictures, raised the ransom. I can just see Herbert J. Yates of Republic caught between a rock and a hard place on this one. He had a well deserved reputation as a tightwad, but Trigger himself was part of the Roy Rogers mystique, so he HAD to raise the money. I would at least have thought that Yates would have had Trigger insured.

Of course life imitates art and Roy takes things into his own hands in ferreting out the criminals. They are in fact a pretty scurvy lot, busy doublecrossing each other as you will see if you watch the film.

And despite my description it's not a bad film. Jane Frazee pinch hits for Dale Evans because I believe Dale was either pregnant or taking care of a newborn at the time. And Andy Devine is, well Andy Devine.

Roy, Trigger, a scruffy dog, and a boy like I used to be. Add some baddies, Trucolor, a pretty girl, and comic relief (Devine), and what else could this front row geezer ask for. And catch that surprise opening. As that scene shows, Roy plays a version of himself as cowboy hero. Seems some new West connivers want to steal Trigger for ransom and they've got a misguided youngster (Chapin) as part of their plan. Meanwhile, Roy's got his movie career to think about. And what would that career be without the world's smartest horse. Actually, a big part of the story is Roy and co. preventing cruelty to animals, whether horses or dogs. That means the bad guys are really bad. There's not much action til the end. The story, however, moves along nicely, with Director Witney even using close-ups astutely, especially with little Ted. But don't look for many tunes from the Sons of the Pioneers. They're mainly along for the ride. No, there's no Oscar bait here. Just the kind of afternoon entertainment that might hook some of today's youngsters if given half-a-chance.

Back at home after finishing his latest movie, Roy Rogers runs afoul of a nasty group of abusive wild horse-wranglers, who hatch a plot to kidnap Trigger and ransom him back to Roy for one-hundred-thousand dollars.

Roy celebrates his tenth anniversary as a feature attraction (onscreen as well as off) with this well-photographed color production. However, one wishes that he would have celebrated this milestone with a few more of his best loved co-stars, not just Andy Devine, Bob Nolan, and The Sons Of The Pioneers. Where's Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes?

Still, Under California Stars is pleasant, straight-forward, and has some great songs, with musical highlights that include the title song (not really written by Cookie Bullfincher!) and Roy joining The Sons Of The Pioneers in singing "Dust".

One unbelievable moment that has to be seen to be believed shows Trigger stomping a villains face in! For a few seconds you actually see in the background, a dummy with his face caved in!