Home on the Range

As the genre wears on, I guess it becomes increasingly dependent on gimmicks. Well, perhaps these'll be enough to trip your trigger: pretty scenery filmed in color; a plot that emphasizes the importance of the game preserve (complete with much scene-stealing by the animals); the singing cowboy, reinforced by The Sons of the Pioneers; and a 13-year-old Robert (in those days, Bobby) Blake. These features produced my above-average vote. The storyline involves an inheirited tract, split between two brothers - one deceased, who's daughter is currently in charge of its being ranched; the other, doing nothing with his land other than allowing it to be a home for wild creatures. A would-be buyer of the conservationist's property, however, incites its neighbors by simulating the bear-caused deaths of their cattle, thinking that maybe it'll become "for sale" if everybody is mad at its owner. Monte Hale is the songster who is summoned by the surviving brother. I can't quite dismiss the corniness of the concept, but, if you're a REAL fan of the genre, then that doesn't seem to matter.

Bad guy Dan Long (Mason) tries to trick old man Garth (Chatterton) and his boy (Blake) out of their land that they've turned into a game preserve. Hale helps expose the ruse and wins the affection of Garth's niece (Booth).

Rather easy-going Western with a positive message, and surprisingly not much gunplay or hard riding. Hale is a pleasant enough cowboy lead if not much of an actor, even by matinée standards. In fact, except for Booth and Blake, the acting doesn't get much beyond delivering the lines. On the other hand, the strong conservation message about preserving wildlife seems strikingly relevant for contemporary audiences. Dragging the poor calves on screen to their bearbait doom, however, did strike me as questionable for a young audience. The early Technicolor process holds up pretty well, and even if the locations never get out of greater LA, they are well chosen. At the same time, staging much of the story lakeside is rather unusual for a matinée oater. All in all, a pleasant little diversion with a worthy message.

Home On The Range is a film about the range being home to much wildlife and how we have to protect it. At least that's the way Tom Chatterton feels, but his next door neighbor and niece Lorna Gray feels a whole lot differently. Bears are killing her cattle and other rancher's cattle and she means to do something about it.

Chatterton however has hired Monte Hale as a kind of game warden. Of course there's skullduggery afoot and Hale finds out what it is.

This film has the look and feel of a Roy Rogers film which devolved on to Hale from Republic Studio boss Herbert J. Yates. It has scene stealing Bobby Blake and Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers to make Rogers identification complete. It's also the type of story that Roy was doing at this point in his career.

Perennial western villain LeRoy Mason is at the bottom of the evil doing and he certainly meets a rather poetic end. Hale does fine pinch hitting for Roy as it were.