Silver Spurs

Silver Spurs has the kind of plot situation more involved in one of those Philo Vance murder mysteries than with a Roy Rogers western. The fact that we see all the villainous machinations of John Carradine and his henchmen out in the open robs it of being a mystery. But Silver Spurs still rates as a pretty good Roy Rogers western.

For a plot this is interesting and unusual for a western. It involves playboy Jerome Cowan who among other things has a ranch that Roy Rogers is the foreman of. The people in the area want him to give the railroad a right of way, but Cowan is too busy partying to pay any attention to business.

Apparently Jerome's dad knew what an idiot he was raising so the terms of his will are that the ranch can't be sold, but if he dies his widow can. So Carradine who owns the local gambling house arranges for a mail order bride for the well known playboy. Which perks the interest of sob sister reporter Phyllis Brooks and she comes west and marries the guy to see what the story is. Little did Phyllis suspect.

The emphasis is on action and plot rather than Roy's singing. Still he gets to do a couple of standards the great Al Jolson song Back In Your Own Backyard and Tumbling Tumbleweeds which was written by Sons Of The Pioneers head Bob Nolan. And Roy gets as a sidekick Smiley Burnette who takes his Frog Millhouse character from those Gene Autry flicks where he sidekicked with Gene before Autry went into the service.

Burnette even gets a love interest himself with Joyce Compton who is the sidekick of Phyllis Brooks.

All in all a pretty good western for Roy Rogers.

Roy Rogers (as Roy), Smiley Burnette (as Frog), and the "Sons of the Pioneers" are forced to operate on the wrong side of the law after Rogers is accused of murdering his drunken boss Jerome Cowan (as Jerry). John Carradine (as Lucky) is the scheming villain, and Phyllis Brooks (as Mary) brings along some feminine charm.

The contrived story hits its height of incredulity when the Sheriff immediately believes Mr. Rogers has murdered the man he just pulled up from an over the cliff car crash. However, the film builds to an above average climax that is worth the wait. Trigger repeats his role of Rogers rope puller; but, Smiley performs a later trick Trigger could (and should) have pulled. Mr. Carradine lifts the performance levels considerably. The soundtrack includes one of the biggest Rogers/Nolan/Pioneers hits "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (from way back in 1934), but it's not the definitive version, and is interrupted by annoying dialog. The "full performance" song highlight is "Back in Your Own Backyard".

**** Silver Spurs (1943) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, John Carradine

Silver Spurs (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This "B" Western from Republic probably won't appeal to too many people today but it's your typical Roy Rogers vehicle, which gets some added spice with one of the bad guys being played by John Carradine. In the film Roy is accused of killing his boss but of course he's innocent so he must break free from the Sheriff and try to clear his name. Along the way a female reporter is on the case and discovers that the murder might have something to do with a valuable piece of property. Apparently there are quite a few different versions of this film available from countless public domain companies. I had this film on three different sets and the running time varied on each of them. I went ahead and watched the longest (just at 60-minutes) but from the reviews I've read it appears the shorter versions are missing some of the music from Roy Rogers and the Son of the Pioneers. Overall this is a fairly entertaining Western as long as you don't go into it expecting something like John Ford would give you. At this point I really haven't seen too many films from Rogers but I certainly enjoyed his performance here and look forward to other movies. I thought the story was your typical stuff that had been going around Hollywood since the silent era and we even had some 30s stuff thrown in like the subplot with the reporter. For the most part the story is decent enough to keep you entertained but I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the short running time. Rogers was pretty charming in his role as he has to flirt with the ladies while trying to track down the bad guys. I guess it goes without saying but Rogers was at ease in the role and was quite believable during the action pieces. I'm sure the events going on in Carradine's personal life caused him to take this part and to be honest there's not too much he or anyone else could have done with it. It's clear the studio didn't take advantage of having him in the picture by making the part bigger because it really doesn't stand out and in fact any actor could have done it. Carradine is decent in the part but it's just strange seeing even him in something like this. Trigger, the horse, appears and gets to do a couple stunts as well. The action in the film is pretty good including one scene where a car goes off a cliff and Roy has to use his rope to get to the bottom.

"Silver Spurs" is an enjoyable Roy Rogers vehicle which moves along at a brisk pace. I like the fact that it never settles on one genre -- is it a musical Western, or a suspenseful comedy? -- and that it boasts a cast that's a notch better than what you would expect from a low budget B picture. Roy gets to sing a few short-but-sweet numbers with The Sons of The Pioneers and the supporting players are a joy: Phyllis Brooks, John Carradine, Jerome Cowan, Joyce Compton (not playing a dumb blonde for once), and Western regular Smiley Burnette. I was also amazed at the stunts Trigger could do; he truly was "The Smartest Horse in the Movies"!

Excellent Roy Rogers vehicle with a great, wily performance by John Carradine as an added bonus.

Good pacing and good direction (and yes, a few very good stunts) place this way above similar movies. Even the usually annoying side-kick role (with this one, it's Smiley Burnette as "Frog") isn't that bad at all.

Also, far less corny than some would first expect if you've seen others with similar plots from this time period.

There are a few very good action sequences, and some very funny lines if you're in the right mood.

The story mostly involves a "mail-order bride"; Mary the reporter going in to get a story about the "playboy" rancher and what is obviously a "phoney deal". Rogers is only trying to help his boss. However, the rancher is shot (admittedly, it was one unbelievably good shot through a car window from a fair distance) and Roy is conveniently framed when he shows up at the accident scene to check things out. Of course, you know that everything is bound to turn out for the best. There is also time for a couple good old songs.

10/10.