Apache Rose

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.

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.

My grandfather had mentioned Roy Rogers very few times, but, from what I could always collect, Roy seemed to be pretty popular, back in the day.

I must say, I had a good time with this flick-even as someone who's never watched any work from Rogers. This was fun, humorous, and a little silly, at times (but in a good way). It even manages to get pretty tense, every once in a while! I'm definitly glad my fiancé bought me this five-film box set from a local thrift store we recently found. Very cool stuff, so far, with this first film.

I'm genuinely surprised by how well-made this was.

Roy Rogers is cool, and he can definitely sing (which, oddly enough, I didn't expect so many songs in this fifty-five minute flick). The songs were all enjoyable. Some were even catchy, to a 2018 ear. My favorite character may be Roy's buddy, in this episode. The performance is fantastic by this actor I'm not familiar with, and his slapstick humor is brilliant. Kudos to the fellow, for his hard work. The rest of the supporting cast were impressive, as well.

The fight choreography was actually pretty awesome! I never expected to see a person jump off one horse, only to tackle another guy off his own! Very cool! A lot of this stuff looked super dangerous to pull-off, and I MUST give credit where credit is due.

I enjoyed this quite a lot! If you don't know anything of Roy Rogers, check this one out! If you do, though, I'm not sure if this is better quality than his usual work, or what. I'm just saying: I was impressed by this. "Apache Rose" was, for sure, a good time had.

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.