Twilight in the Sierras

Edward Keane is a retired judge running a ranch where he employs paroled criminals to get them back into society. Parole officer Roy Roger is a frequent visitor, so when ex-forger Russ Vincent goes missing and his dog returns with.a bullet in his leg, everyone is concerned. The oddities continue when Vincent's sister, Estelita Rodriguez shows up believing he owns the ranch, and then vanishes, and a mountain lion starts attacking people.

There are a couple of instances of poor writing here; both the dog and Trigger get shot in a leg, but are back in full vigor as soon as the bullets are removed. By now, the Sons of the Pioneers have been replaced by Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, and the songs are pretty good, and Dale Evans is sheriff Harry Strang's daughter and his deputy while he is gone for most of the movie. The usual good stuntwork and color cinematography by John MacBurnie keep this one watchable at all times, but the holes in the story bother me; the Roy Rogers series had long been notable for their writing.

I only watched this because I wanted to see how they treated the mountain lions in the film. Obviously, I am against the hunting of any animal. There were, in fact, some other interesting items in this film. It wasn't just a singing western, as I expected - they did break into song every 15 minutes - but what would you expect when you have The Sons of the Pioneers in you cast list.

The story was about counterfeiting, and Roy gave a lesson on how to tell the difference and what you should do if you spot a counterfeit bill. I did not expect a public service announcement in the middle of a western.

I was really disappointed when Ricardo's sister showed up. Could they not have found a hotter example of a Cuban singer to bring along? I am sure they could have found the Cuban version of Shakira, instead of someone who resembled an Andrews sister.

Though the story isn't much,about a reformed outlaw who is kidnapped along with his sister from Cuba by a gang of counterfeiters of gold certificates no good in the United States but worth face value in Europe, this Roy Rogers outing has all the ingredients his fans loved. The King's Queen Dale Evans puts on a good show as the daughter of the local lawman. There's Pat Brady of the Sons of the Pioneers for comedy, though his jeep Nellie Belle that made his act so funny on early television is not there to add to the laughs. Many times that piece of machinery actually upstaged Pat which tells you something of his brand of humor. Trigger is featured in an escapade with a mountain lion and with the outlaws. At one point Trigger is wounded and has to be nursed back to health by Pat, who is somewhat of a doctor for both animals and humans. The Sons of the Pioneers are not around but a similar group called the Riders of the Purple Sage do a fair job filling in for them. And Roy gets to sing a song or two. So "Twilight in the Sierras" should delight Roy and Dale's many fans.

This film was released toward the end of Roy and Dale's long trail on the big screen. They went over to the new medium of television with a popular show and continued to perform off and on the rest of their lives. Toward the end, Dale with Roy's assistance devoted much time and energy to religious causes, appearing often on evangelical television shows. Roy and Dale also did an excellent show on The Nashville Network (TNN) where they would sit together and discuss their movie career sometimes with special guests. With the discussions many of their old films were shown, some for the first time on television.

Dale was a noted songwriter--actually better than Roy at writing and as good as Roy when it came to singing. Dale began her career as a singer of jazz and pop before she met Roy. Dale even wrote their television theme "Happy Trails." Unfortunately in "Twilight in the Sierras" as in the other westerns she made with Roy she serves as a mere appendage to him. The producers never really let her strut her stuff. There were other cowgirls around at the time such as television's Annie Oakley (Gail Davis) and Jennifer Holt (Tim Holt's sister) who took the lead and were as tough and ornery as their male counterparts. Not so Dale. At times she so bungled the situation that instead of hitting the bad guy she would accidentally hit Roy and knock him out. I remember hearing comments from other kids in the theater when I was about ten years old watching Roy and Dale, "Ain't that just like a woman. Always getting in the way." Unintentionally Dale did a lot to promote the sexism that existed in Hollywood during Roy's heyday, which is sad since she was such a talented and gifted woman and didn't have to be in Roy's shadow, but that's the way she wanted it as a devoted wife and mother.

"Twilight in the Sierras" is a Roy Rogers film made in TruColor, a cheap two-color process that was much less expensive than Technicolor. This meant that this film (and many other B-westerns) is in color...but a very limited range of colors. It's a bit muddy for a color film...but compared to many other TruColor films I've seen, it looks pretty good. Additionally, the film is complete...something that isn't true for many of Roy's movies which were trimmed for television time slots of the 1950s.

When the film begins, Roy is a parole officer out west. He and the Judge work together hiring ex-cons. One day, one of these parolees, Ricardo, is kidnapped by Matt Brunner (George Meeker...who always seems to play baddies in these films) and his men. Why? Because they want to force Ricardo to help them with some counterfeit gold certificates....and if he doesn't cooperate, they promise to hurt his sister, Oddly, Brunner is convinced he needs to kill Rogers....and when his plan doesn't work, he blames Rogers for the death of one of his men and insist Roger be arrested. Can Roy figure out what's really going on here?

The part of the film about Roy being arrested doesn't make any sense, as the dead man was clearly mauled by a mountain lion, Roy's gun had been tampered with and he easily could have shown everyone this AND then Roy runs away....which makes no sense for a respected parole officer! Certainly not the most logical of Roy Rogers films....and it also seemed odd when the sheriff uses tear gas...something you really shouldn't see in such a setting. Overall, watchable but not especially logical.....which seems to be more likely true with his later films. And, oddly, a strange film that really seems to HATE Mountain Lions...as folks seem bent on killing them....and vice-versa.

By the way, I noticed that one reviewer says the film features the Sons of the Pioneers (a musical group created by Rogers in the 1930s). However, the group in the film is the Riders of the Purple Sage....a similar sounding group but not the Sons of the Pioneers.

Roy, Dale and their singing pals take on a gang of counterfeiters; stopping frequently along the way for a round of song. Roy's hometown looked funny as horses and cars vied for road space - and everybody wore a sixgun. This was pretty much typical Roy and Dale fare - comedy, romance, and lots of horses. I thought this was high adventure and excitement back in the 50's, but now it seems so tame and corny.