Bells of Rosarita

This Roy Rogers film has everything we love about the genre. Co-starring Trigger, Gabby Hayes, Dale Evans, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers. It carries the bonus of guest appearances of Wild Bill Elliott, Allan Lane, Don 'Red' Barry, Robert Livingston and Sunset Carson. The action with the good guys riding after the bad guys and realizing they are firing blanks is a great touch. The Robert Mitchell Boys Choir is terrific and blend their voices with Roy! You will really enjoy the scene featuring the rodeo/circus parade which Sheriff has said is not allowed. Our family rates this one in the top five of Roy's films. Hope you enjoy it too! Happy Trails! -Revran

In many of Roy Rogers' pictures, he plays characters named Roy or even Roy Rogers. In "Bells of Rosarita", however, he plays a fictional version of the movie cowboy star! Sounds confusing? I'll try to explain:

When the film starts, Gabby (Gabby Hayes...but he's NOT playing Gabby Hayes the actor...just a guy named Gabby) and Sue (Dale Evans) meet up and head west to Hollywood. On the way, they wander into the middle of the filming of a Roy Rogers film and they soon make friends with the gosh-darned nice actor. However, a jerk is trying to steal out the circus from underneath a nice lady. Roy responds by calling the other B-western stars from Republic Studios and they plan on putting on a charity event to help her.

It is a bit strange to see Roy playing an idealized version of the actor, Roy Rogers...and Dale and Gabby NOT playing themselves! Odd...but also interesting and fun...like most Rogers' films. And, while not among his best, it's quite good and great for his fans.

Here is a pacey work that employs standard elements to be found in Republic Pictures' contemporary Western films starring Roy Rogers, including the familiar plot artifice of shooting a movie within another, cowboys on horseback chasing motor vehicles bearing villains, musical interludes that interrupt the action at random, et alia, with an additional device utilized herein: "cameos" from cowpoke stars under contract with Republic: Wild Bill Elliott, Robert Livingston, Allan Lane, Don "Red" Barry, and Sunset Carson. Sue Farnum (Dale Evans) has been willed her father's traveling circus but his erstwhile partner Bill Ripley (Grant Withers) intends to take it from her as she cannot locate a receipt confirming that her sire had repaid a loan enabling him to gain title to the big top company, and when she and her employee and friend Gabby Whittaker (Gabby Hayes) accept aid from her dad's pal Slim Phillips (Addison Richards), the three, along with Slim's daughter and troupe entertainer Patty (Adele Mara), entrain to the southern California fictional town of Cabrillo wherein Slim believes he will locate the missing receipt, thereby ending Sue's plight. The Forces of Evil soon kidnap Slim but subsequent events are but ill-explained by a slapdash screenplay that accords space for eight musical numbers (not counting repeats) and while Rogers plainly is tasked, as is his wont, with rescuing a city-bred damsel in distress, he is equally motivated by a primal need to burst into song, a predilection shared with, among others, Evans, Mara, Janis Martin, and the baritone Bob Nolan-led Sons of the Pioneers. This lower case effort benefits from a panoply of Republic casting roster supporting players from whom, despite the film's following the accepted trend of Rogers "B" Westerns, a number of telling performances will be enjoyed from uncredited actors (including dancing girls!); Hayes reprises his wearisome shtick that he displays in each of his movies, even to the phrases, but Evans has a clamp on the acting laurels with a vivacious turn, while able editing supervised by Arthur Roberts makes for a snappily moving although somewhat goofy picture.

In one scene, Don "Red" Barry is called to the phone during the shooting of one of his films. This is evidently a modern day film since he is dressed in 1940's attire, not western clothes. As he leaves the movie set to answer the phone off stage, look at the actress who has been in the scene with him. Her hair is done up in a fashionable upsweep and she is wearing a long designer gown. This is Helen Talbot who appeared in some of Barry's films. Since she was a contract actress, Republic put her in films just as "set decoration." Although this film was shot about the time of THE CHICAGO KID, in which Barry co-starred with Lynne Roberts, the "movie scene" was not part of the film and was included just to give the flavor of behind-the-scenes at Republic.

This is a very good Roy Rogers feature, perhaps among the best of his many B-Westerns. It is, as usual, primarily light entertainment, with a lot of humor and music, and this time there is some clever irony deriving from the setting - Roy plays himself, acting in a cowboy feature and at the same time getting involved in a situation that in some respects parallels his film. Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes complete the picture, and there are short appearances by several other Western stars of the era.

The story starts with Dale and Gabby heading west to try to save a circus that belonged to the father of Dale's character, while the unscrupulous Ripley (Grant Withers) has plans to take it over himself by any means necessary. As soon as Dale and Gabby arrive, they find themselves mixed up in a scene from the movie (whose title is also "Bells of Rosarita") that Roy and Bob Nolan are shooting. It's a funny scene, and cleverly done, and it sets up the story that follows as well as establishing the connection between film and reality. Most of the actual plot is not to be taken too seriously - the villains are, as usual, pretty incompetent - but it has a very pleasant tone, and a pretty good variety of action and entertainment.

This is very good for a B-Western, and certainly recommended for any fan of Roy Rogers or for those who like Westerns of the era.