Young Bill Hickok

In his early years at Republic Pictures, Roy Rogers specialized in historical westerns (DAYS OF JESSE JAMES, BILLY THE KID RETURNS), in contrast with the contemporary settings of his wartime and postwar westerns (DON'T FENCE ME IN, THE GOLDEN STALLION, etc.). YOUNG BILL HICKOK (1940) casts Rogers in the title role and dramatizes the famed gunfighter's first meeting with Calamity Jane (played by Sally Payne in the first onscreen portrayal of the character since Cecil B. DeMille's epic western of 1936, THE PLAINSMAN, which also featured Hickok and paired him with Buffalo Bill, who's absent from this film).

The film starts out promisingly as it details a plot by an unnamed foreign power to take advantage of the divisions of the then-raging Civil War to try to take over California. John Miljan plays the foreign agent, Nicholas Tower, without a trace of an accent or any other hint of which country he's supposed to represent. (The name Nicholas may signal a Russian origin, but weren't the Soviets our wartime allies?) Tower conspires with Morrell (Hal Taliaferro), a local outlaw, to disrupt the stage lines serving California, and when Morrell's Raiders go into action, they run afoul of young Bill Hickok (dubbed Wild Bill by a reporter for "the Chronicle") who soon allies with wagon freighter Gabby Whitaker (Gabby Hayes) and his salty young female partner, Calamity Jane. After introducing all the characters and setting up the basic premise, which offered a good deal of potential for suspense, the action quickly settles into familiar B-western territory as Hickok has to defend himself against a charge of masterminding the theft of a gold shipment he was assigned to guard. Gabby and Jane spring him from jail and work to get the goods on Tower. At a certain point it becomes simply one chase after another, albeit with the usual topflight Republic stunt work.

While the drama wavers in the second half, the spirit of fun is maintained by the delightful performances of Gabby Hayes, in his trademark wizened old westerner role, and the film's genuine revelation, Sally Payne, as the no-nonsense Calamity Jane, whose command of western vernacular is equaled only by Gabby's. (A horse is never a horse, but a "Cayuse.") The homely, mannish Jane was always a challenge to Hollywood, which couldn't resist the urge to make her pretty by casting such top stars as Jean Arthur (THE PLAINSMAN), Yvonne De Carlo (CALAMITY JANE AND SAM BASS) and Doris Day (CALAMITY JANE) in the role. Here she looks and sounds a little closer perhaps to what the real woman was like, although the best Calamity Jane onscreen may arguably be Ellen Barkin in Walter Hill's WILD BILL (1995).

There are a handful of short songs that don't intrude much on the action, including one performed together by Gabby and Sally. Special mention should be made of B-western regular Hal Taliaferro (aka Wally Wales) who delivers a sharp portrayal of bandit Morrell who distrusts the "foreigner" Tower but takes the job anyway because the pay is good. Long-haired, unshaven and tall, with piercing eyes, Taliaferro cut a suitably seedy and menacing figure but with a touch of humanity. It's too bad the importance of his character diminishes as the film progresses, with Tower taking up greater screen time. Iron Eyes Cody is on hand as one of Gabby's Indian workers. Jacqueline Wells (aka Julie Bishop) plays northerner Hickok's southern-born fiancee, lending a bit of romantic conflict to the equation as they bicker about the ongoing war.

This is the first Roy Rogers film I've ever seen in its entirety, although I watched many an episode of his TV show in my younger years. It was a passable B western, with some fine Yakima Canutt stunts, and features an appearance by a veteran of John Wayne's old Lone Star westerns, Jack Rockwell, as a stagecoach driver. Roy, Sally Payne and Gabby sing some fair but forgettable songs, Sally and Gabby's scenes together are a hoot, and Julie Bishop and Trigger both look as comely as ever. The screenwriters in typical Hollywood fashion play fast and loose with the history of these characters and their times.(The notion of anybody trying to take California away from the U.S. is ridiculous, Wild Bill and Calamity didn't meet until almost a dozen years after the Civil War and both were pretty homely looking even by 19th century standards.) All in all, some parts of this film are quite entertaining, it's mostly pleasing to the eye and ear, and it's not a bad way to kill an hour. Dale Roloff

Hollywood had a huge love affair with westerns up until about 1960. Most of the ways they portrayed the west were complete nonsense and they had a habit of injecting real-life characters into situations that never occurred. Heck, the lives of Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp and Bill Hickok are completely unrecognizable in the hundreds and hundreds of films in which they appear. "Young Bill Hickok" is yet another one of these entirely fictitious films from this era and it even throws in Calamity Jane (a rather unattractive woman in real life) to boot. Playing so fast and loose with the truth drives history teachers like me crazy, but my love of a fun B-movie kept me watching.

Roy Rogers plays Bill Hickok and he looked even less like Bill than Gabby Hays who is on hand (as usual) to play Roy's loyal sidekick. As for the plot, it's all a lot of nonsense about Bill tracking down some Confederate raiders and their unknown leader as well as Bill wanting to marry a Southern lady. I won't bother going into any more details as none of it seemed to bear any semblance to Hickok's life.

Overall, the film is a pretty ordinary Roy Rogers film. There's lots of singing for no apparent reason, Hays is quite funny in support and in the end good triumphs over evil. The only moment of the film that really caught my attention was the jail break--that was very clever and you just need to see it. Worth seeing for Rogers fans--otherwise just another one of 23281235413 B-series westerns.

In the beginning of his career, Roy Rogers actually played characters other than people named Roy Rogers. Here he's Wild Bill Hickok who foils a dastardly plot hatched by an unnamed foreign country to detach the west coast from the union by fomenting outlaw trouble during the Civil War.

John Miljan is the villain here, performing in the best Snidely Whiplash tradition. He's only the west coast top guy, he does receive instructions from the east, Roy finds a letter addressed to Miljan signed by John Wilkes Booth. Amazing Miljan was able to keep a straight face through the whole procedure.

Actually amazing that Roy kept a straight face too. Gabby Hayes is around to lend Roy a helping hand and actress Sally Payne as Calamity Jane is the best thing here. Her performance is remarkably similar to the one given by Doris Day in another 14 years.

This film is not unusual in that it was in a tradition at the time with B Westerns to take famous names in history and create wholly fictional plots around them. That's a tradition I'm glad we've stopped.

Roy Rogers stars as "Young Bill Hickok", saving California and its gold from wicked invaders like John Miljan (as Nicholas Tower)… against a Civil War back-story… with references to Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. This time George "Gabby" Hayes brings along his niece, none other than Calamity Jane (well played by Sally Payne) to assist Mr. Rogers. It's an interesting team-up concept, however unlikely.

The film's highlight is its posse / stagecoach chase scene, near the film's end. Rogers and Yakima Canutt -- I assume the stuntman is the stunning Mr. Canutt -- perform well in an exciting man-under-the-stage sequence. That sequence followed one of the typical Rogers songs. Otherwise, this is nothing more than a fair Rogers western.

*** Young Bill Hickok (1940) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Sally Payne