The Gay Ranchero

The Gay Ranchero finds Roy Rogers as sheriff trying to find out who is hijacking the cargoes of a small freight airline in his part of the west. The fact that it is owned by pretty Jane Frazee I'm sure does not lessen his interest any.

With some inside help they've got someone who is shorting the aviation fuel loads and making the meters read falsely. When the planes come down the gang is there to meet them and steal the cargoes and shoot the pilots.

There's not much suspense in The Gay Ranchero, we learn early on who's behind the skulduggery. But the film more than makes up in plenty of action.

Along for the ride with south of the border box office receipts in mind is Mexican musical film star Tito Guizar who did a few films in the USA as well. Guizar gets a love interest here in the person of Estelita Rodriguez and he sings the favorite Hispanic classic You Belong To My Heart in the film. Tito had quite a resume, his venues included no less than grand opera for his tenor pipes.

The climax involving attacking the gang on the ground and from the air is pretty well staged. All in all one of Roy Rogers better films for Republic Pictures.

Okay Rogers programmer. Plot's a little different—bad guys trying to sabotage small rural airport and its planes so they can build a casino. Roy's the town sheriff, while Frazee runs the port with Devine's help, that is, when he's not in the bull ring. Guizar and Estrelita are sort of charming drop-ins. There's some good hard riding around familiar LA area locations. Not much gunplay, but some good flying fists, especially when two bad guys mix it up. And, oh yes, lots of a low-flying single engine as it navigates the trees and fields. Unless I missed something, the Amazon streaming version lacked the songs listed here, and was in fuzzy b&w .

Anyway, Roy's his usual appealing six-gun hero, while Miss Frazee's a relief from the ugly guys, and Devine's amusing without overdoing it. But, in my little book, Estrelita steals the film with striking looks and a strong personality. Watch out for the little story twists that may require a scorecard as to who's on whose side. All in all, it's an average Rogers oater which for his fans is way good enough.

Bandits find a way to force airplanes down in uninhabited areas, in order to steal their cargo. Sheriff Roy Rogers rides out to the landing sites to investigate and runs afoul of the villains.

Tito Guizar is good as the title character, an ex-bullfighter who comes to the United States to wrangle his beautiful runaway fiancé, but almost everything else about this loosely-plotted Roy Rogers vehicle is pretty pedestrian, with a few confusing moments and not nearly enough action until near the end.

However, Bob Nolan and The Sons Of The Pioneers sing a few decent songs, Roy's still likable, and Estelita Rodriguez, as Guizar's fiancé is awfully attractive.

This 1948 cowboy flick finds the King of the Cowboys helping to foil a plot to sabotage airline equipment and plunder the contents. Roy is a lawman that gets to the bottom of the hooligans shenanigans .

The great Andy Devine is back in this one as "Cookie" and so are the Sons of the Pioneers. The plot, casting and action here are good and the songs are adequate. Gabby Hayes & Dale Evans are sorely missed.

This was a pretty good Rogers film. The story moves at a good pace and the airplane angle was nicely incorporated. Jane Frazee was not the best choice for a female lead, but is pleasant nonetheless.

An enjoyable, but standard singin' cowboy flick.

Opinions differ on this one, perhaps due, in part, to different versions being made available.

The film was originally shot in Trucolor with a running time of 72 minutes and, for those watching the shorter (54 minutes) black and white version, opinions of the movie overall might be influenced by what was actually edited out. I say this having just watched the full length movie - albeit not in colour - as part of Passport Video's Ultimate Roy Rogers Collection: a very nice print it is too! I found this to be a superior series entry. All of the B western boxes are ticked in such a way that the Republic quality again shines through. They were simply the best in the action stakes and The Gay Ranchero is well up to their usual high standard.

There are fist fights, shoot outs, chases and stunts a-plenty and Trigger gets to kick a door down in helping Roy to round up the bad guys. Andy Devine provides the anticipated level of cornball humour, Rodriguez dances and there are songs a plenty. Roy sings with and without Jane Frazee, Guizar and Rodriguez warble in both English and Spanish and the ever reliable Sons of the Pioneers chip in with a couple of ditties of their own. I appreciate that this lot might be a bit much for some tastes but have to say I loved it! The plot, as some other users have said, is "loose" but it is unusual and somewhat dark and, therefore, more interesting than it otherwise would be.

One slightly sour note: attitudes to bullfighting were a whole lot different in 1948 and pretty Estelita's obvious delight in talking about bulls being killed makes somewhat uncomfortable listening in 2015. Having said that, I suppose that nearly everything in B Western Land reflects a wholly different way of life and, generally speaking, we fans wouldn't have it any other way.