California Mail

"California Mail" is a very good Warner Brothers B-western starring Dick Foran. However, it is also special because it also has an uncredited appearance by Roy Rogers...in a very small and very early role. And, while the baddie is named 'Roy'...it's not this one, thank goodness!

When the story begins, a contract for mail service is on the line and apparently the bids are very close...so close that they propose a race and the winner is to get the mail concession from the government. While Bill (Foran) is the frontrunner, the baddie is determined to win any way he can....and he sabotages Bill's wagon. But that's not enough...he also frames Bill for a robbery and shooting! What's our hero, Bill, to do??

This is a very good B-western and I have only one minor quibble about it....and that is that Bill's girlfriend is quick to assume Bill is a crook! You'd THINK she'd know him better than that! And, you'd think by the end of the movie, Bill would tell her to get lost...but he didn't and it was very disappointing.

On the plus side, the plot and acting are very good. Also, while some might be creeped out by it, I loved the scenes where Bill's horse kicks at least one guy to death (the second one, near the end of the film, isn't certain...he stomped the guy good but it wasn't certain whether he killed this second baddie or not). Overall, well worth seeing...especially if you are a Roy Rogers fan and want to possibly see every single film he's appeared in...even ones where he is only briefly in the movie.

After seeing California Mail, I'm convinced Trigger might be the smartest palomino in the west, but certainly not the most dangerous. That title would belong to Smokey, the trusty steed that Dick Foran rides in this film.

When Foran wasn't doing parts in A films like The Petrified Forest or spoofing himself in Boy Meets Girl, he was Warner Brothers singing cowboy and was starring in a series of B westerns like this one. Here he and his father Tom Brower own a stage line that is trying to get a mail contract. But they're up against some unscrupulous brothers in Edmund Cobb and Milton Kibbee.

Nothing special in this one save the horse. Foran sings a couple of nice, but forgettable cowboy ballads and has a pretty leading lady in Linda Perry. But his horse is one dangerous animal, he dispatches more bad guys than Foran does. Trigger aided Roy Rogers, but Smoke was taking care of business all on his own.

To see what I mean, catch California Mail the next time it's on.

Bill Harkins (Dick Foran) risks his life riding the Pony Express and escapes from the Indians. He loses his job to the stagecoach. He competes against two other teams for the contract and there is a race to settle the matter. Roy Banton and his men try to kill him. He manages to escape and identifies one of the horses. Roy also sets his sight on his girl, Mary Tolliver, and resorts to sabotaging Bill in the race.

It is a singing cowboy with lots of horse riding and a few stunts and plenty of fist-a-cuffs. It is a fine B-movie western. I wouldn't call it good. Rather I would call it good enough.