Grand Canyon Trail

Roy Rogers and company try to bring "Sintown" back to life - it's a ghost town which may go boom if silver mining is successful. Andy Devine (as "Cookie") slapsticks around. Jane Frazee (as Carol) loses a piece of her bitches to Mr. Rogers' sharp leer. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage stand-in (or, is that sing-in?) for the A.W.O.L. Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers. James Finlayson (from the Laurel and Hardy films) adds to the "slapstick" look of "Grand Canyon Trail". A loose floor board delivers the winning comedy performance. Mr. Devine's mule kicks its heels. There are energetic human performances, too - but, the material isn't Grand.

** Grand Canyon Trail (1948) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, Jane Frazee, Andy Devine

Roy Rogers becomes entangled in murder and larceny after his friends (Andy Devine) and singing ranchers (Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage) invest $20,000 in a seeming worthless silver mine. When an old prospector who might know where the silver is located disappears, Roy suspects that the project's mining engineer (Robert Livingston) could be behind it. Seeking proof of a crime, Roy's investigation becomes even more complicated when the mine owner's secretary masquerading as his daughter (Jane Frazee) arrives in town. In a case of mistaken intentions Frazee constantly thwarts Roy's attempts to bring the bad guys to justice.

The ghost town set and dark abandoned hotel form the stage for this action oater. Roy's nine pictures with Andy Devine marked a real difference in style from earlier movies. Andy was brought in after Gabby Hayes left the series in 1946. While Andy still provided comic relief, the villains grew more ruthless and Roy sang less. Here there are only three pretty good non-action stopping tunes in the movie. Comedy of Errors inspired sequence in the spooky hotel about halfway through seems a little out of sync with the rest of the movie.

Originally filmed in "Trucolor", seemingly only the black and white prints remain on this one. Unfortunately as with a lot of the later Roy Rogers movies, this one was later chopped to bits to reduce the runtime from 67 minutes down to 54 to fit for television. Good news here is that unlike a few of Roy's other movies where the chopped footage appears lost forever, Grand Canyon Trail can still be found intact in the full length version. For Roy Rogers Fans it's worth the effort to find to 67 minute unedited format.

Pretty decent Roy Rogers flick. 6 of 10*

Is there silver in sintown or not? Half the folks think its a swindle and the other half thinks there's still treasure down there. Carol (jane frazee) is willing to take a chance and get investors in on the deal. She gets off on the wrong foot with roy rogers (and his horse trigger)... she fires him, not realizing he's not even an employee. Regular sidekick andy devine is in here as cookie. Turns out regan, one of the hired hands, wants to keep the silver for himself. This has all the usual fistfights, the horse chases. The mining schemes from republic pictures. Throw in a haunted house too! It's silly, but it's roy rogers in his prime. Directed by bill witney. Story by gerald geraghty. He worked on 19 films with roy rogers! Then died young at age 47.

Plot-- Roy stumbles into business dealings surrounding a lost silver mine. In the process, he meets up with a spunky girl and some sneaky crooks. Good thing Andy's around to help.

This Front Row Geezer really enjoyed the 67-minutes. Especially a spirited Jane Frazee who all but steals the show with her assertive Carol Vanderpool or is it Martin. Oh well, either way she's a scene stealer. Roy gets to do a lot of well choreographed flying fists, and I hope they paid him double for his extra trouble. And, of course, Andy Devine is Andy Devine, but with less clowning than usual. Catch that early scene with Roy and Frazee on the stagecoach—it's a little gem of battling attraction between guy and gal. Frazee was a really good foil for Rogers, as, I guess, both Roy and Dale knew.

There's some canyon scenery, but not much. Most of the action settles into familiar greater LA locations. And what about that hurricane Katrina slammed place called Sin Town and a hotel called Hangman's that shows all the litter and crud that the studio could muster. They're like nothing I've seen in an oater. Not much hard riding or fast shooting, but likely enough for matinée fans, including myself. All in all, it's a good action-filled Republic production. My only complaint is the bland b&w instead of Technicolor. But Trigger still looks good, even if upstaged by a sombrero-wearing mule.

A "7" on the Matinée Scale

I saw the complete black & white version of "Grand Canyon Trail". I say complete because many Roy Rogers films were trimmed in the 1950s to fit television time slots but the one I found on YouTube was complete.

The story is pretty simple. An old silver mine was thought to be depleted but recently there's been some indication that much more could be extracted using modern mining techniques. Cookie (Andy Devine) is so sure this will pan out (get it?) that he invests all of his and Roy's money in this mine. Soon after, the scene switches to the mine owner and his secretary....and he's just received word that the mine is NOT going to be productive and all the investors will be screwed.

Roy goes to investigate and meets one of the worst tropes in these old B-westerns...the know-it-all woman who instantly takes a dislike to him even though Roy is a hero and a swell guy. Much of the movie is spent with her yelling at Roy or sicking the sheriff (James Finlayson...a most unusual casting choice) on him. But there's more to the mine than the stories the mine owner has gotten...and the fact that the workers try so hard to prevent Roy and this super-annoying woman from getting close to it tips him off about their scheme to defraud everyone! What's next? See the film.

This is a pleasant film aside from the woman you want to violently shame and tell to shut up!! That is why although Rogers was fine here, I cannot give the film a score any higher...the trope has been so overused and is so annoying. Plus, it doesn't age well and seems pretty sexist. Still, the movie is worth seeing...just try to ignore her antics.