Bad Man of Deadwood

If you like Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes, you will probably like this movie.

I'm not a fan.

I admit it's rather watchable, but these low budget westerns don't do anything for me.

The available prints are horrible too, making it painful to watch.

The plot

Deadwood is controlled by Ripper's gang that has rendered the Sheriff and the Judge powerless.

When Gabby's medicine show featuring Roy arrives they are quickly run out.

They join the Laramie Gap gang that is fighting Ripper and when Gabby's inheritance money is stolen they rob the stage to get it back.

Getting the money and the names assigned to it, Roy hopes this evidence will enable the Judge to bring law and order to Deadwood.

Bad Men Of Deadwood while it doesn't quite take us back to the days of gold strike in the Black Hills, takes us to when the town was starting to grow. But the people who were there first have a businessman's association that's a cover for a monopoly. They don't like newcomers and will do anything to stop them.

Roy Rogers plays a trick shot artist in Gabby Hayes's medicine show with the lovely and funny Sally Payne and all get involved in the fight for some fair business practices. Also involved are Carol Adams who works for newspaper owner Henry Brandon.

They've got a federal judge who is sympathetic in Herbert Rawlinson. The sheriff is in the pocket of the business association and he's got a murderous deputy in Jay Novello. That's a surprise because later on Novello played funny little ethnic parts usually Italian. Here he's quite serious and deadly.

Singing is kept to a minimum and it's usually part of the medicine show. Emphasis definitely on action in this good Roy Rogers western.

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.

Roy Rogers, a sharp-shooter in Gabby Hayes' medicine show, helps the refugee townsfolk of Deadwood battle a crooked bigwig and his outlaw gang, who've forced them out of town and stolen their businesses.

Meanwhile, Gabby collects a sizable inheritance that gets stolen by the bad man of Deadwood.

Though not as good as some of Roy's later features, this is fast paced enough, has some good gun-play by Rogers, and features a snappy opening scene featuring Gabby's medicine show that all help make this decently entertaining. However, it does run out of steam a bit near the end.

Once again, George "Gabby" Hayes is quite a scene stealer.

All you need to know: If you have to pick a single movie to introduce someone to B westerns, Bad Man of Deadwood is a good choice.

Bad Man of Deadwood starts off with Roy, Gabby, and the always likable Sally Payne putting on a show with Roy singing a song. They meet the bad guys soon into the story and Roy is shooting it out with the bad guys for the rest of the movie in one gun fight after another. Each shootout fits into the story. Nothing is wasted.

Roy Rogers was a big star, and his movies got extra attention. Bad Man of Deadwood has the look of the perfect cowboy movie in the way scenes are set up and edited together. This one never slows down, hits a lull, or has any filler.