Trail of Robin Hood

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.

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.

Like so many Roy Rogers films, this one's title has absolutely nothing to do with the title. So, if you are looking for any sort of Robin Hood angle, you'll be disappointed.

As for the movie, it's a very mixed bag. Let's start with the bad. As Roy's career evolved, he began playing an idealized version of himself--and was even referred to as Roy Rogers in his films. And, in this persona, he was a swell guy--a guy who loved kids and was about as hard-edged as a bowling ball! More and more in his films he would either have children in key roles (in this one, it's 'Sis') or have childish sorts of plots. I assume that his fan base became increasingly younger as his career progressed. Unfortunately, sometimes this resulted in ridiculously saccharine plots--and the plot in this one is just cringe-worthy! Fortunately, however, there is a HUGE plus that fans of B-westerns will love. Near the end, when Roy and his friends are in a jam, out come a group of B-movie stars of the 20s, 30s and 40s--and it's nice to see the likes of Monte Hale, Kermet Maynard, Ray Corrigan and Rocky Lane (and more). For me, this makes up for the horrid plot....a bit.

The film begins with Roy stumbling into some...Christmas tree rustlers!! I kid you not...Christmas TREES!! It seems that his good friend Jack Holt (the real-life star of tons of westerns and other films--and the father of cowboy star Time Holt) has a Christmas tree farm and he's being robbed blind--thanks to the henchmen hired by a competitor. Roy understands that (gosh) unless he helps, lots of children will be disappointed this Christmas!! While not as bad as "Santa Claus Versus the Martians", this is an amazingly stupid plot--and has absolutely nothing to do with the old west. By 1950, Roy's films were becoming more and more detached from reality--playing up his children's hero role much more than any western character.

So the film has a super-dumb plot, an annoying kid BUT lots of nice cameos. Plus, if you are a fan of Holt (I love his older films if you can find them), it's one of the last films he made, as he would die about a year later. Worth seeing if you are a huge fan, otherwise it's pretty dumb.

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?