Apache Rose

Songs not so western-sounding; Dale and Roy initially at odds; coastal setting; believable, interesting story with intelligent humor - elements of this film which favorably impressed me, without a "try-too-hard-to-be-different" result. "Apache Rose" is the name of a small boat, skippered by Dale. Oil prospector Roy dislikes Dale's delivery plans for his equipment, but, eventually, they warm up to each other, with disguised Dale actually assisting to apprehend the villainous Reed Calhoun, who operates a casino-boat and covets oil-rich land owned by Dale's suitor - the gambling-indebted Carlos Vega, and his sister from out-of-town, Rosa. Some of the comic relief is aptly provided by the bumbling, years-worn, Roy-admirer, Alkali. After twelve years of pretty-much formulaic Roy Rogers movies - which, by this time numbered around 75 - it's nice to see one which is not quite the same as many of them, but doesn't overdo the uncharacteristic.

Roy Rogers is an oil prospector who wants to get rights to drill for oil on a promising piece of land. Dale Evans (as Billie) sails a local tugboat named "Apache Rose" and Olin Howlin is Mr. Rogers' lovable old codger friend "Alkali". Bob Nolan and the "Sons of the Pioneers" are around when necessary. Gamblers aboard the boat "Casino Del Mar" aka "S.S. Casino" are the main adversaries, led by nasty George Meeker (as Reed Calhoun). This film is very poorly performed and presented by Rogers and company. Ms. Evans is absurd as a disguised Senorita, and her song "There's Nothing' Like Coffee in the Morning" looks like a breakfast commercial try-out. Mr. Howlin's quickly disappearing "black eye" might have been better placed on the entire disjointed production.

* Apache Rose (2/15/47) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Olin Howland, George Meeker

I'm not a huge fan of Roy Rogers, though he has a lovely voice (and Dale Evans was CUTE!!). I don't particularly like musical westerns and singing cowboys (especially Gene Autry). And this is a fairly typical Roy Rogers film. The plot is interesting enough (and the film short enough) to keep one going, but thee films were churned out a mile a minute to keep the public happy and the dollars rolling rolling rolling, so they weren't exactly high on quality. I really didn't like his sidekick Alkali (played by Olin Howlin) which didn't help much. But Roy was good as usual, Trigger was beautiful as usual, Dale Evans was CUTE as usual, but the film didn't live up to others of his, or my expectations.

Overall: I've seen better, I've seen worse. He beats Gene Autry by a mile but I prefer his TV show. Roy Rogers fans will probably like this a whole hell of a lot more...4/10.

I don't care how much of a fan you are of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans--you've got to admit that this is a very bad film. In fact, it's the only film they made that truly made my skin crawl...it's THAT bad. Why is it so bad? Well, a pretty senorita is hurt very badly and Dale comes up with an insane plan--to don a black wig and pose as a Mexican!! I think that the Swedish Chef would have been more convincing! She is, to put it bluntly, absolutely terrible. Later, for no apparent reason, Roy tells everyone that he's killed the senorita--and I have absolutely no idea why! On top of that, the writing isn't very good and there is the usual Rogers/Evans cliché where they meet and hate each other. A bad film in just about every way...and dumb, dumb, dumb to boot.

Hoping to secure drilling rights to the oil rich Vega ranch, wildcatter Roy Rogers discovers a scheme hatched by members of a gambling operation to cheat the Vegas (Russ Vincent and Donna Martell) out of their oil rights. Roy teams up with new found sidekick Alkali and tugboat owner Billie Colby (Olin Howland and Dale Evans) to bring down the criminal racket of Reed Calhoun (George Meeker) who runs his operation from a floating casino which resides just out of jurisdiction offshore.

This was Roy's first movie after the departure of Gabby Hayes who as they say, left to pursue other opportunities. Without an apparent backup plan in place the studio plugged in veteran character actor Olin Howland for his one and only pairing as Roy's saddle pal. Actually Howland did a pretty good job. It makes you wonder why he never found a niche in this kind of sidekick role.

Apache Rose is another of Roy's films that was chopped to bits for television. The original 75 minute runtime was cut to 54 minutes. This left close to a third of the movie on the cutting room floor making it almost indecipherable. Apache Rose is still readily available in the full uncut format. It is highly recommended before watching or buying a DVD that you get the unedited version.

Neither one of Roy's best or worst movies. Probably most fans will enjoy though.

5 of 10*