Saddles and Sagebrush

What a treat, Lucky Hayden ridin', ropin', shootin', Dub Taylor as Cannonball with plenty of funny lines to deliver and Lucky giving it right back to him in kind, the music legend Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys performing the likes of "Hubbin' It," a pretty colleen, Ann Savage as Ann Parker, a dastardly outlaw boss, William Wright as Krag Savin, some of the meanest henchmen in the business, lots of action and terrific stunt work! As Gershwin would say, "Who could ask for anything more?" The alternate title for "Saddles and Sagebrush," "Pay-Off," is more descriptive of the film. The script is fairly routine, sort of a range war type theme. It seems an outlaw gang is trying to drive the homesteaders out and take the government land for themselves. One of the henchmen in charge of finding hired guns finds the wrong hired gun, Lucky. When Lucky sees for himself what is happening, he sides with the homesteaders and brings his cowboys to help defeat the outlaws.

Bob Wills has a second lead in the film. Though Wills didn't originate Western Swing, he did popularize it. After the untimely death of Milton Brown in a car accident, Wills had no serious rivals. He could out fiddle any of his contemporaries. Plus he was an original and creative musician who wrote much of his own material. His lead vocalist was usually Tommy Duncan and Bob would do the ah-hahs and other asides, but he was also a singer and in "Saddles and Sagebrush," he does the vocals for the Texas Playboys. The songs in the film were all composed by Bob Wills and Cindy Walker, one of the finest songwriters in country music.

Dub Taylor, Lucky's comical sidekick Cannonball, was not only a fine comedian and actor but was himself a musician, though he doesn't play his xylophone in "Saddles and Sagebrush." The repartee between Cannonball and Lucky is electric, for example Cannonball tells Lucky that he'll be right behind him, "Maybe you'll need some help." Lucky retorts, "If I do, I send you after some." If you're a fan of the Saturday matinée westerns, you should enjoy this one.