They weren't supposed to be documentaries. lol So let's forget the "straining credulity" and "logistics" and "plot problems" and just settle down with some popcorn for an old-fashioned good time. This is Saturday matinée. You want something to put a smile on your face that makes you forget the horrors in the world--war, poverty, racism. You want a cinema universe with good music, perhaps some snappy dancing, beautiful gutsy women and handsome gutsy men, and gorgeous horses with streaming mane and tail galloping through exotic scenery in a part of the US most Americans had yet to explore. It's a fantasy land where good always triumphs over evil, mortgages always get paid, people aren't told they can't do something because of their skin color, and wittiness is woven throughout. In short, it isn't reality, which is just the way the audiences wanted it.
When we are introduced to the hero and sidekick I was strongly reminded of Cisco and Pancho in looks and humorous interchange. :) The two funny fellows in the movie play out a scene that might have come from a Charlie Chan, where Number One Son and black friend tear off in a panic. It might also be from an Abbot and Costello monster movie. Or any of the other early comedy acts when a none-too-bright fellow is confronted by something frightening. "Did you think you could run faster than your horse?" "The horse didn't see what I saw." tee hee Or the hero literally picking up the extremely capable heroine at the way station! Those western ladies were game for anything! My mother was a Great Plains lady of that era and she could handle a lot, too.
I'm not a big fan of early westerns, except maybe the Cisco Kid, but I found this series to be entertaining because of the comedy. As with musicals, I don't particularly care about the plot, which seems to be the way the writers felt about it! :)
