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Pretty good Roy Rogers. Bad guy newspaperman played by Robert Emmett Keane is out to take over his brother's (Lucien Littlefield) fish hatchery to cash in on the oilfield below the lake. Recently escaped convict Del Roberts (perennial bad guy Douglas Fowley) gloms on to the shakedown and wants a cut of the action. Roy and Doc Parker (Dale Evans) find themselves in the middle of the chicanery. Murder and mayhem ensues.

This has better than average songs performed by Roy and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage as well as Roy Rogers' regular Estelita Rodriguez. "Brush Those Tears From Your Eyes", and tile tune "Susanna Pass" are particularly good.

It seems that Roy's movies could be divided into three categories. The early films directed by Joseph Kane which had a grittier feel, the middle musical Lallapalooza's, and the later action oriented films directed by William Witney. To me the best are the later films by Witney. Almost all of the Witney films feature lavish exteriors and better than average scripts. Susanna Pass is no exception. Filmed in "TruColor" it is a cut above the average B-Western. While Roy has always been considered a B-Movie star the truth is is, his later Westerns could really be considered A minus.

Good songs, good action, Roy at the top of his game. Definitely worth a watch.

I do have to wonder whether in these days of terrorism and the fluctuating oil market, a film like Susanna Pass could be made today and just who the villain is.

Roy Rogers is a fish and game warden for the state of California and he weighs in with his good offices in a fight between two brothers, Robert Emmett Keane and Lucien Littlefield, one bad and one good.

Bad brother is newspaper editor Keane who's a rich guy looking to get richer. And that would be at the expense of good brother Lucien Littlefield who's got a piece of land on which he's created an artificial lake and uses it as a fish hatchery. He's assisted in this worthy endeavor by Dale Evans who is an ichthyologist.

But there's oil under that lake, black gold, Texas tea as that old TV theme used to say. Keane is in cahoots with escaped convict Douglas Fowley to get that land by fair means or foul, mostly foul.

Later on a different view of the oil situation and drilling underwater would be voiced in the Anthony Mann/James Stewart film, Thunder Bay.

I'm willing to bet that former president Herbert Hoover who was a serious fresh water fisherman would have endorsed this film. I'll bet he saw it when out and loved it. Especially with that valedictory that Roy gives about the youth of America getting out in the fresh air and enjoying fishing as our forefathers did. Hoover was also a founder and spokesperson for the Boys Clubs of America as well.

Hopefully that oil is still under that lake in Susanna Pass so we can get it out when needed in a pinch.

An escaped convict and an evil newspaper owner attempt to take over another man's property to mine the oil they know lies beneath a lake. They stop short of nothing to do this including murder. Lots of action, gunplay, and good western songs.

The later Roy Rogers movies tended to have a conservation and education message. In the case of Susanna Pass the plot is built around a feud between two brothers with differing ideas on how a piece of land should be used. One brother wants to use the land for a fish hatchery while the other wants to drain the lake and drill for oil. Roy's movies were strong in their message to carefully manage wildlife for hunting and fishing, and some of what is said in Susanna Pass would easily fit into a short film on raising fish for recreational and commercial fishing.

Russell Masters (Lucien Littlefield) who seeks to make life better for everyone with a fish hatchery. He is joined by Doc Parker (Dale Evans) in his venture. Dale Evans was always feisty toward any villain and usually kept Roy in check whenever he became mischievous. This time around she pulls no punches, literally speaking, because she plays the part of a marine! As far fetched as it may sound for tiny Dale, she is dead serious and no-nonsense in her role.

Newspaperman Martin Masters (Robert Emmett Keane) has to find a way to ruin the fish hatchery and eliminate his brother so that he may take the oil from underneath the lake. He and his hired thugs nearly succeed, but when facing Roy Rogers and a marine the task becomes difficult.

Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage were doing their own western adventures on their radio program, so they certainly were no strangers to acting. While they do get to partake of the action in Susanna Pass, they just do not have the flair of the Sons of the Pioneers. Perhaps it is because they were not as comfortable on screen, or it may be a nostalgia for seeing Roy with his original group.

There is a different feel to the polished production of Roy's last years of B westerns. In some ways it takes away from the "shoot 'em up" aspect that was so much fun, but it establishes a strong sense of right and wrong. Roy was no longer the cowboy who did good deeds; he had a purpose that was made clear to everyone.

The version of "Susanna Pass" was, fortunately, the complete film. Many of Roy Rogers' films were hacked to pieces to make them fit television time slots...and fortunately this one is intact. It also is in TruColor...a color process that is NOT true color. Instead of the more expensive Three-Color Technicolor, TruColor and Cinecolor were much cheaper alternatives. So why didn't most films use TruColor or CInecolor since they cost about as much as black & white film? Well, both are two-color processes....made up of blends of orange-red and green-blue....and create a limited color palate. Additionally, both systems tended to fade or become very orangy or muddy over time....and so the copy of "Susanna Pass" is, not surprisingly, very faded and offers a print that looks more brown or sepia.

The story begins with a couple prisoners who have escaped from prison. The meaner one decides to go it alone....and he takes out his 'friend'. Obviously, this guy is seriously kindness-impaired! And soon, he goes into business with a local newspaper man...a man who is also seriously kindness-impaired as well!

This is a very unusual Roy Rogers film. Of course there's the escaped prisoner, but the film also features Roy as a game warden and is all about a reservoir filled with fish from a local fish hatchery! Additionally, instead of the usual sidekicks like Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine, this one features two Mexican-Americans as comic relief (they are NOT particularly welcome). And, Dale plays an ichthyologist...a woman with a doctorate in fish! All in all, a rather strange collection of plot points...and a film less like a western and more like a crime film. In fact, aside from the cowboy hats, there really isn't much western about this one. This isn't a complaint....just an observation about the usual story.

So is it any good? Yes. While it's far from great, I do appreciate the change of pace and much about the story is original. Well worth seeing.