Rolling Home

This story about preacher Russell Hayden trying to save his church from a $5,000 debt due immediately, "Buzz" Henry trying to save his horse by entering him in a trotting race, Pamela Blake as the meanest woman in town, who's in love with Russell Hayden.... well, there are an awful lot of moving parts in this sweet-natured movie produced by the Lippert organization -- not known for its classy productions -- and directed by B western specialist William Berke. It has has very little in its pedigree to make it look like it's going to work; the only major acting talent is Jean Parker. There is the usual wealth of nearly-forgotten talent on its rolls, including Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Hatton, Jonathan Hale, William Farnum, Elmo Lincoln, as well as Harry Carey Jr (the IMDb claims it's his first movie. His actual first movie was made in 1921. It was a Harry Carey Sr. movie directed by John Ford and Jr. was he about a month old when it was released). Yet, it works surprisingly well. Perhaps it's the religious aspect...

I will take some exception to the idea of entering a rodeo horse in a trotting race. They're very fastidious about horses maintaining a trotting pace, and given that the horse was the wrong breed for the race, and untrained for the purpose, and winds up being driven by a driver with no experience.... well, it's such a good-natured effort, that I don't mind. It simply goes to show that all these people who spent their life turning out cheap features for little money were actually good actors, directors, cameramen and editors.

Rolling Home was produced by Robert Lippert who was soon to found his own studio to produce B films of varying quality. This film is varying quality throughout although it is sincerely made and rather cheaply done.

Russell Hayden appears in one of his few non-western roles as an earnest pastor of a church which as churches always do, has money problems. He's got one easy way of making money if he marries wealthy widow Jean Parker, but Hayden has eyes for her younger sister Pamela Blake.

Into everyone's life comes Raymond Hatton, a veteran rodeo performer who's had his best years way behind him and his young grandson Robert Henry. They have a trailer and an injured horse and no place to stay. Being the good man he is, Hayden takes them in and that raises a few eyebrows though God only knows why.

Jean Parker is the villain of the piece until almost the very end of the film. But she's more like a Cruela DeVille type villainess than anything else. What a woman scorned won't do.

An important plot element is young Henry, Jo Ann Marlowe who is Parker's daughter and best remembered on screen for being Joan Crawford's younger daughter in Mildred Pierce, and Jimmy Conlin all train the horse after he's recovered to enter a trotting race to win a purse and solve all their problems. Even the most naive racing fan knows that pacing and trotting horse have to be taught that gate almost from birth and a horse used to being a roping horse in a rodeo has too much to unlearn to be any good. But why let that little fact get in the way of a good story?

Rolling Home is a sincere enough film and the players have nothing to be ashamed of. But it was a bit ridiculous as well.

In the 1930s and 40s, Raymond Hatton made a long string of B-westerns....mostly with such franchises as the Three Mesquiteers and the Rough Riders. While these were enjoyable films, they were also rather predictable and gave Hatton an income but little in the way of opportunities to show he could act. When I began watching "Rolling Home", I was surprised as Hatton was cast without the usual gang of heroes...and he showed he could really act. In fact, he was so good I wish he'd made more appearances like this one....so even while it's far from a great film, it's worth your time.

When the story begins, Pop Miller and his grandson are traveling about the country as Pop makes his living with the rodeo. The problem is that Pop isn't a young man and soon his prize horse, Briar, is badly injured and it appears as if he'll need to be put to sleep. Fortunately, Pop meets up with a friendly preacher, Reverend Owens (Russell Hayden) and he helps them treat Briar and, hopefully, get him back into shape and on his feet. The preacher offers to let the Pop and his grandson stay with him during Briar's convalescence. There's quite a bit more to the story than this...probably best you see it yourself.

While I must admit that this film is pretty schmaltzy, it's also pretty good family entertainment...provided you can get past all the saccharine. Overall, pretty well done and worth seeing....but a bit heavy-handed and cliched to make it a must-see picture.

Veteran of eventually hundreds of motion pictures, Raymond Hatton was often over-playing and far too exuberant, but in "Rolling Home," he was nigh onto perfect as an old rodeo performer.

It is fun to watch this frequent ham underplaying and looking slim and fit and riding like the long-time cowboy he was, at least in films.

This is a story about his character, and a small-town preacher sought after by a grasping widow, played by the lovely Jean Parker, and a horse and a young grandson.

Russell Hayden gives his usual performance, which is OK, but he seemed often to have trouble enunciating, as if he had badly fitting dentures. He was nearly always likable, but sometimes hard to understand.

"Rolling Home" is finally a pleasant movie, one that lets its viewers feel good about life, especially motion picture life, and that is as much as we usually need to ask of a movie.

I found this by accident on YouTube and once again was seriously irritated by the moronic commercial interruptions. No, the commercials were not themselves so bad, but they popped up often right in the middle of a scene, right in the middle of a speech sometimes, and that is inexcusable.

Still, "Rolling Home" is a good enough movie to put up with the rudeness of the commercial breaks. I recommend it.