Young Buffalo Bill

During the 1950s, many of the old B-westerns were trimmed down to television time slot length. Sadly, many of Gene Autry's, Hopalong Cassidy's and Roy Rogers' films were trimmed. In some cases (all the Cassidy films, for instance) copies of the original movies were saved. In many other cases, only the trimmed versions seem to exist....and this appears true for "Young Buffalo Bill". I could not locate a 59 minute version...just this 53 minute shortened one on YouTube.

Like too many old B-westerns (especially several of Roy Rogers'), the film uses real historical figures in a completely fictional situation. So, while Roy supposedly plays the famous Bill Cody, the story has no relation to Cody's life at all and it's not the least bit 'Buffalo Billy'. My advice is to ignore the names and just enjoy it as fiction.

Don Regas is a Mexican-American whose family has lived in the western United States long before there was a United States. He control large amount of land...but the U.S. government wants to survey it in order to determine its exact boundaries. Roy, working on behalf of the government, convinces Regas to cooperate. However, the evil Montez wants the northern portion of Regas' land because there is supposedly a hidden gold mine there. To get the land, he tricks the surveyor into gambling...and makes sure the guy loses a lot. To pay back Montez, the surveyor is told to alter the boundaries....and excluding the northern range from the property. Can Buffalo Bill Cody (Rogers) and Gabby stop him?

This isn't a bad story at all. Despite the William Cody angle, it was enjoyable and worth seeing. But I was bothered by the casting of Don Regas' daughter, Tonia. She is supposed to be from a Mexican family that only recently (after 1848) became Americans following the Mexican-American War. So why doesn't she have an accent that sounds in any way Mexican? In fact, she sounds as if she was raised at a charm school....not the old west. This sort of casting wasn't unusual back in 1940...but it does look (and sound) sloppy.

By the way, it doesn't harm the movie but the retired American History teacher in me thought it ridiculous how everyone in the film seemed to have repeating pistols and rifles. While they were available back in 1860 when this film was set, they were very rare. Plus, the revolvers generally were hand-loaded and didn't have cartridges like we have today (they needed a separate percussion cap to fire). So, folks could NOT just fire again and again and again like they did in the film. I see this mistake a lot in films...not just this one. I even noticed it set in "The Alamo"...a film set in the 1830s...long before any repeating rifles or pistols were even invented.

Roy Rogers is in the title role of Young Buffalo Bill and I doubt that for all of William F. Cody's accomplishments that he sang as pretty as Roy did.

Roy and sidekick Gabby Hayes, former army bugler are in New Mexico helping the government survey the land. That's an issue of deep concern to Hugh Sothern owner of a large ranch from the days his family got a Spanish land grant from the King of Spain 200 years earlier. It's a big concern to Sothern's granddaughter Pauline Moore for whom Young Buffalo Bill has taken an interest in.

Problems arise when the surveyor, young Steve Pendleton gets himself in some gambling debts and fakes the survey depriving Sothern of a section that contains a lost mine that the Comanches know about. So does Trevor Bardette, half brother to their chief, Chief Thundercloud.

All this intrigue leads up to a mighty fine shootout at the hacienda. That's the climax of the film.

Young Buffalo Bill is another in the long tradition of Hollywood B westerns where a real frontier legend is taken and a wholly fictitious story is written for them. As for Buffalo Bill the closest anyone ever got to telling his story for real is Buffalo Bill And The Indians with Paul Newman. At least this one doesn't pretend to be ground in reality.

And Roy does sing nice with a couple of cowboy ballads, something William F. Cody never did I'm sure.

Roy Rogers stars as "Young Buffalo Bill" Cody, surveying the New Mexico landscape, fighting off Comanche Indians, and defending a diamond mine. And, wouldn't you know it? - "Buffalo Bill" had a sidekick named "Gabby", played by George "Gabby" Hayes! Pauline Moore (as Tonia) adds some feminine charm to the running time.

The film's highlight is its generous location footage. Not New Mexico, of course, but California; and there are specific sequences are from rocky Vasquez Park, according to IMDb data. Otherwise, this is a very rushed looking western. Produced off of the Roy Rogers Republic western-production-line, with the expected quality control. Mr. Rogers' musical interludes are below par. The story is unimaginative, and you have to wonder about the sobriety of certain cast and crew…

** Young Buffalo Bill (1940) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Pauline Moore

Excellent performers with a pretty good script -- except it had NOTHING to do with "Buffalo Bill," and was very anachronistic.

Why Hollywood preferred such stupid generic titles is beyond me. Hollywood almost never got its history right, and really should have avoided such a misleading title.

ANY name would have been preferable because the whole story was fiction. The film I watched is in a collection, Volume 36 of supposedly more than 40 in The Great American Western series from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.

The quality of the print is generally OK, although some scenes seem to be missing or out of place. And that is inexcusable.

All in all, though, I liked and can recommend this.

Roy Rogers is, as nearly always, great to watch, and he sings only two songs. His sidekick is Gabby Hayes, also always fun.

The rest of the cast is generally not or little known, yet the quality of the acting is high.

Hank Bell has a nice part but is uncredited, a real shame. He deserves better.

Iron Eyes Cody is in it, according to IMDb, but I didn't see him. He too is uncredited.

Chief Thundercloud is the leader of the Comanches, and I think it is one of his largest roles. He is very good with it.

Again, I can recommend it, especially to Rogers or Hayes or Western fans generally.

Added 22 January 2017: You can watch it at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEE9MnW6u7Y

Bill Cody and friend Gabby Whitaker are called on by the US Army to survey the New Mexico territory. Don Regas is not happy with the survey since he feels that the Army is out to cheat or rob him of his rightful land (through a Spanish grant), but is assured by Cody that all will be fair. The Don's friend Emelio Montez is actually trying to acquire part of the Don's land since there is a rich gold mine on the property and calls on his half-brother, a renegade Indian chief Akuna to kill the Don so that the claim will be open and ready for filing, especially when the surveyor is in the debt to Montez and fixes the boundaries so the land is open for anyone to file. When Cody learns of Montez' plot, he races to protect the claim as well as the Don's daughter Tonia from Akuna's wrath. The film never quite has the ability to take off and is just an ordinary oater despite the characters and setting for a great film. Moore and Sothern are out of their acting range and Pendleton is very flat in his portrayal. The rest of the cast's performances and story could have been a lot better, but there is some mighty fine photography and locations used here. Rating, based on B westerns, 5.