Heart of the Golden West

Edmund MacDonald head of a trucking company and William Haade his chief henchman are making some big trouble for rancher Paul Harvey and his foreman Roy Rogers in Heart Of The Golden West. It seems as though the trucking company, the only shipping conveyance for their cattle is charging some exorbitant rates. Although Harvey is all for knuckling under Roy's a man of action. And I don't mean he's going to take this to the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Roy's scheme is to use a riverboat and ship his cattle to the stockyards by water. And he invites the steamboat owner Walter Catlett to sign the deal with Harvey. Of course MacDonald gets wind of it and therein lies the tale.

Heart Of The Golden West has a lot more comedy in it than the normal Roy Rogers westerns although they never lacked for it. Mainly because of Walter Catlett who plays a Senator Claghorn type owner of the steamboat who comes to town with daughter Ruth Terry who is Roy's romantic interest. MacDonald intercepts a telegram telling Roy that Catlett hates everything about the wild west even if it's not that wild any more. MacDonald will make sure it's wild and Catlett and his reactions to the situations are pretty funny. Running a close second is the perpetually exasperated Harvey.

And if that wasn't enough Roy gets two sidekicks in this film, Gabby Hayes and Smiley Burnette. The two of them in a horse costume with Catlett unwillingly on board is a riot unto itself.

The Hall Johnson Choir appears in Heart Of The Golden West singing some Negro spirituals which the Sons Of The Pioneers join in with Roy as a soloist. Makes for some nice cross cultural music.

Heart Of The Golden West, definitely one of Roy's better films and Catlett and Harvey are priceless.

You would think having Roy, Gabby and Ol' Frog in one movie would be enough but throw in the Hal Johnson Choir and Sons of Pioneers and you have an all time classic. I didn't even mind that the super talented songstress Ruth Terry didn't sing. She did say she had fun in this movie and it shows in her radiance here. Walter Catlett plays the officious blowhard to perfection and Edmund MacDonald shines as the villain everyone loves to hate. 'Now you know the rest of the story' Paul Harvey, no relation to the radio announcer but had same passion with his performance. This is my favorite Roy Rogers movie with a side-splitting horse scene with Gabby and Frog.

Edmund MacDonald doubles his trucking rate for cattle and his henchmen beat up an old rancher and take the cattle anyway. Paul Harvey, unofficial head of the cattlemen's association, doesn't know what to do. His foreman, Roy Rogers, suggests he hire Walter Catlett's riverboat. MacDonald isn't done. He can always try to burn down the boat, or rustle the cattle, but Catlett's daughter, Ruth Terry, eventually reaches agreement with Roy.

With Gene Autry off to war, this Roy Rogers vehicle is overloaded with comic actors: not only Catlett and Harvey, but regular Gabby Hayes, and Smiley Burnette -- I guess Republic had him on the payroll for Autry's oaters. There's also the Hall Johnson Choir as well as the usual songs from Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers. Director Joseph Kane keeps things from getting too busy, but Rogers' fans were certainly getting their money's worth!

Tired of dealing with the gangsterish owner of the area's only trucking company, Roy Rogers and the local cattlemen try to lure a riverboat line into starting a route on the near-bye river. The only problem is that the owner of the company has a wild west phobia, of which the crooked truckers plan on exploiting to maximum effect.

The emphasis this time is on raucous comedy, with sidekicks Smiley Burnette and George "Gabby" Hayes in top form, threatening to steal the movie from Roy. The scene where they accidentally start a fire inside their two-man horse costume is gut-busting hilarious, as is the earlier gag where they barge into the frightened riverboat owner's room dressed like "scary" western characters.

Great photography, rowdy action, and a few good songs also help make this one of Roy's best unsung adventures. It appears as if Republic Pictures threw a bit more money than usual (for a Saturday matinée western) at this project.

The film's musical highlight occurs when Roy joins The Hall Johnson Choir and The Sons Of The Pioneers to sing an absolutely fantastic old-time spiritual on the banks of the river.

Recommended.

In the 1950s, TV westerns were the rage. And, to capitalize on their popularity, many of the famous 1930s-50s B-western stars had television shows. But there was a problem...the networks wanted to fit these old movies into television time slots. To do this, they trimmed many of the films...which would explain why "Heart of the Golden West" runs only 53 minutes instead of the time listed on IMDB. There might be a complete version out there...but I haven't found it.

"Heart of the Golden West" is a most unusual film because unlike nearly all other B-westerns, this one features the hero with TWO sidekicks....Gabby Hayes and Smiley Burnett (who had been Gene Autry's sidekick, though at this time Autry was serving with the Army Air Corps in WWII). Rogers himself never served in the war (the same can be said for Burnett)....and as a result of Autry's absence, when he returned from the war, Autry was no longer the big western star at Republic Studios...it was Rogers. Fair or not, this is why Burnett is also in this film as well as a few others of Roy's films made during this period.

When the story begins, Lambert's nasty workers very impolitely inform the ranchers that he's doubling the rates to ship their cattle to market...and there's nothing they can do about it. Roy has a plan...to ship the cattle using Colonel Popen's riverboats. But Popen (Walter Catlett) hates the west and has a weird phobia about it. He assumes if he come west, he'll be killed by Indians or outlaws....and Lambert knows about this and sends out his men to make the town look like a lawless and horrible town!

I was actually very impressed by the makup crew in this film. It's very difficult to tell that it's Catlett playing the Colonel, as he's sporting a lot of fake (but realistic looking) facial hair and a wig. Catlett was also pretty funny in the role as this phobic man...and it was enjoyable watching all sorts of terrible things happen to his character!

I was also impressed with the look of the film thanks to the location shooting in Lone Pine and Mammoth Lakes, California. It's a lovely area and many westerns and non-westerns have been filmed there...especially at nearby Lone Pine. Seeing Mount Whitney and the other mountains made this an especially pretty black & white western. Combining this great location with the action and lovely singing (much better than usual....with the Sons of the Pioneers AND a great black chorus providing some nice tunes).

As for the story, I generally like it because its plot was so unusual and the comedy GENERALLY worked. I say generally because the main story about the Colonel and Lambert's efforts to scare him was both funny and entertaining. What I hated was the 'funny' bit with Smiley and Gabby pretending to be a horse...it was just plain stupid....and a bit embarrassing to watch. Overall, the good far outweighs the bad in this picture and it's a B-western well worth your time. I would have given it a 9 (an unheard of score for a B-western for me) but the scene with the fake horse was so bad that I had to take off a point to make it a still respectable 8.