Utah

Utah is one of the dumber Roy Rogers films out there. Mainly because Roy and Gabby Hayes nearly get hoisted on their own petards pulling a practical joke on Dale Evans and her friends.

Dale's the absentee owner of the Bar X ranch in Utah which Roy runs and sends her a monthly check while she pursues a show business career. That aspect of the plot is actually close to the life of the real Dale Evans who wanted to star in musical comedy. She's starring in a review ready to open when the backer pulls out. Dale needs money fast so she decides to sell the old Utah homestead.

Well she can't do that decide Roy and Gabby because the guy that wants to buy is a no good sheepherder who will be violating the unwritten code of the west and not sticking to his side of the valley with his sheep. Not to mention the fact that these two will have to go out and look for other jobs.

For reasons I still can't figure out they pretend Gabby's little shack is the headquarters for Dale's ranch and she and her showgirl friends get put there. A little joke which gets turned on them when she decides to sell what she thinks is worthless.

Not that Roy's westerns at Republic resembled Hamlet or MacBeth or even High Noon, but this one was too ridiculous. Even at the beginning when villains Grant Withers and Hal Taliaferro decide to ambush Roy when he goes to meet Dale's train. Roy and Gabby are NOT armed. Roy pretends to fall off Trigger and the two bad guys see Trigger emerge apparently riderless, but it's really Roy hanging on the side. Then still unarmed he and Gabby go to confront them and the villains who are armed run. I am still trying to figure that one out.

Obviously Herbert J. Yates must have had his mind on the latest big budget spectacular with Vera Hruba Ralston or he might have noticed something. Utah doesn't even have any really good musical numbers. The only one is at the finale where Roy, Gabby, and the Sons of the Pioneers help Dale and her friends with their show.

I'm not sure Roy and Dale's best fans liked this one.

Dale Evans is starring in a musical in Chicago that loses it's backers right before opening. She owns a ranch in Utah that she inherited from her grandfather, so she decides to go there and sell it. She'll use the money to back the musical herself.

Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and the Sons of the Pioneers work on her ranch. They know that if she decides to sell it, a local sheep farmer will buy it immediately and the land will become overrun with sheep. (This is the 2nd western I've watched this month built around the animosity between sheep farmers and cattle ranchers.) Rogers develops the not-very-smart plan of lying to Evans and telling her that Hayes' dilapidated shack is her ranch. This naturally makes her MORE eager to dump it and crooked real estate dealer Grant Withers is more than willing to help her sell it for 1/20 of it's real value.

This isn't a bad Rogers western, but it's not very good either. The plot really requires him to be dumb and dishonest, and then ties everything up with some completely arbitrary plotting that sort of makes him out to be the hero anyway. It's not very convincing.

These movies are all delightfully weird anyway. Rogers, Evans and the Sons of the Pioneers find a LOT of opportunities to sing in the barely-over-an-hour running time, Hayes spends the entire film complaining about how terrible women are, and the whole thing ends in a huge musical number that's literally on a stage where the whole cast plus a flock of sheep re-enact the film you just watched.

"Utah" is a light Roy Rogers Western with the whole gang - Dale Evans, Gabby Hayes, and of course Trigger. Except for some nice scenery, it is undistinguished, but it is a good way to pass a pleasant hour.

The picture begins with Dale as a member of a singing and dancing troupe in Chicago, whose act might have to disband because of lack of backing. Dale remembers that her grandfather left her a ranch in Utah - she has never seen the ranch, but decides that selling it might be a good way of raising money to keep the show afloat. So she heads west, taking the women in her show along for the ride. It turns out that the Bar-X Ranch is run by Roy and Gabby, who do not want to see it sold, since they know a big land speculator who has been just waiting to grab the Bar-X and replace the cattle with sheep.

From there, events get pretty far-fetched, but entertaining. There are of course some cowboy songs, and there is a lot of cornball humor centering on the incongruity of a group of women from the city having to associate with a group of cowboys. Some of the humor is lame and dated, but the good-natured feel of the movie keeps it from becoming too annoying.

One less routine aspect of "Utah" is the scenery - there are a lot of good background shots (for example, during the horse chase scenes) that remind us of Utah's rugged grandeur.

"Utah" is good light entertainment for any fan of old Westerns.

Another Roy Rogers movie when Republic Studios had his movies loaded with songs and music which I love.You must get the uncut version of this movie to really appreciate it. Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers sing some very good songs along with Roy. Gabby Hayes has some good lines when fighting with the women who he wishes would leave the west and go back to Chicago. There is an excellent musical stage ending where they all sing the title song and several others. The one scene where Roy, Dale and the Pioneers sing Utah against a backdrop of scenes from that beautiful state is a highlight of this movie. Again watch the uncut version.

In 1945, Roy Rogers had become Republic's King of the Cowboys. His films were shown not only across the country, but in allied countries which were depending on US films for entertainment. In major cities, like New York, Roy's films got booking dates in first run theaters. Studio president Herbert Yates was in New York City when he saw the Broadway production of "Oklahoma." Taking note of the musical western elements, he decided that the Rogers' pictures would all feature a musical production number at the end. This is why the entire cast, including Gabby Hayes and a flock of sheep, perform on stage before a group of townspeople. This would be the agenda until 1946 when William Witney, Republic's serial director, took over the helm. It was his idea to "toughen up" the King of the Cowboys and add some realistic and bruising fight scenes.