Robert J. Maxwell If you don't expect much in the way or originality, you may enjoy this lively inexpensive Western. Roy Rogers and two buddies are discharged from Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and join the Border Patrol. Intrigues, fist fights, shoot outs, and romance follow. The girl in the case, Mary Hart, is attractive enough but neither here nor there.Roy Rogers gets to sing dumb songs with lyrics like "the stars never fail while I'm ridin' on the trail." But he has a pleasant voice and he actually plays the guitar he's holding, and doesn't just use it as a prop.I always liked these cheap Westerns as a kid -- Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Wild Bill Elliot. The heroes were always so polite, well-dressed, honest, and they never threw a punch or drew their guns without just cause. Rogers, in particular, was a favorite because he was younger than some and, I thought, handsome enough to be envied.When I grew up, I watched his TV program once in a while and he was STILL a nice guy. His chat buddy asked him why he'd had Trigger stuffed. "What was I going' to do?", replied Rogers, still the candid man of yesteryear, "put him in the ground and let the bugs eat him?" The former Leonard Slye came west with an Okie family during the depression, had had a hard youth, and was lucky enough to become a movie star instead of a peach picker. Good for him.

funkyfry This is a good "B" movie – it doesn't offer up any life-changing concepts and, no, it doesn't pretend to. This movie is all about showing Roy Rodgers as a man of action, a former "Rough Rider" under Teddy Roosevelt who, along with a group of fellow veterans, takes a job patrolling the Mexican-American border after the war ends. Given that set-up the film is slightly disappointing depending on your point of view, because other than a brief amusing scene where Roy gets in a fight with a man at a train station because the man said something disparaging about Roosevelt there's really nothing in this film relating to the fact that they are Rough Riders. And the only thing they round up is a bunch of kidnappers.This is a fairly early Rodgers film, so we don't see a lot of his usual co-stars. In place of Dale Evans, we have Mary Hart (aka Lynne Roberts) as the feisty daughter of a mine owner across the border. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the man she's engaged to is also a criminal who has had her kidnapped. Personally I felt she was a bit too civilized for the frontier. Instead of Gabby Hayes we have Raymond Hatton, who I've previously seen in "grizly-man" type roles but not such a comedic one. He does an OK job in this movie; like Hart basically sufficient but not special. I liked how he beat Roy back to the camp on his mule and how he shouts "Hi Ho Dinah!" when he spurs the mule on. We do seem to have the famous horse Trigger, or a horse that looks very much like him, though I didn't see his name on the credits. That's significant, folks, because a few years later Trigger was probably a lot more famous than most of the human actors who appeared in these films! I haven't seen as many of Rodgers' films as I have of Gene Autry's, but it seemed to me that this film was somewhat grittier and more plot-driven than his later films. I recently saw "Trigger Jr." and felt that it had better photography and music but a less compelling story than this one. There was only a little bit of singing in this one, but Roy did get to show off his yodeling ability.All in all it's not a very memorable film but there were some good stunts, decent songs, and I was not bored while watching it.

krorie This action-packed Roy Rogers oater is filled with chases, fisticuffs, and shoot-outs with little music to slow it down. Roy does sing a couple of songs, one when serenading Dorothy Blair (Mary Hart) while she tells him all she knows about the situation, the other in the Catina near the beginning of the film. Roy was one of the best of the singing cowboys. He helped start the Sons of the Pioneers. The only other singing cowboy that could out sing Roy was Tex Ritter. Not everyone knows that Roy was one of the best yodelers in show business. Yodeling is no longer a lost art. Pop singer Jewel and country singer Suzy Bogguss do some yodeling every now and again. Yodeling reached its peak in the entertainment industry during the 1920's with the blue yodeler Jimmie Rodgers. It began tapering off in the 1930's. In the Catina number, Roy ends the song by letting go some of the best yodeling you're likely to hear on the big screen. This is an added treat for his many fans.Roy's comical sidekick this outing is Raymond Hatton with his mule Dinah. Hatton was a dedicated actor but not much in the way of comedy. He looked and talked funny but his humor was lame. Eddie Acuff appears at the beginning of the movie to help with the clowning but is taken out by the bad guys early on. Gabby Hayes was sorely needed. Roy's early movies sometimes centered on historical events and real-life characters such as Jesse James and Billy the Kid. This early Roy Rogers western deals with Theodore Roosevelt's band of cowboys and misfits known as the Rough Riders who won world-wide fame during the Spanish American War in 1898. "Rough Riders' Round-Up" takes place at the turn of the 20th century when a troupe of Rough Riders led by Roy are searching for more adventure this time as border guards along the Mexican border. Roy pulls the first punch when a William Jennings Bryan supporter is bad-mouthing Roosevelt. It is not clear what election is being touted but for the time frame it would have to be when Roosevelt was running for Vice-President with William McKinley. The movie leads one to believe that Roosevelt is running for President against Bryan even though that is not specified. Why the film is called "Rough Riders' Round-up" is unclear. I failed to see any cattle in the movie to round-up.As border guards, the Rough Riders remnants are ordered to find outlaw Arizona Jack. Arizona Jack and his gang steal gold, kidnap Dorothy Blair, and hide out across the border. The rest of the show involves rescuing Dorothy and bringing Arizona Jack and his henchmen to justice.Roy is just beginning his career in the movies and so he and the producers are still working on his image that would eventually lead to his moniker "King of the Cowboys." The present generation of movie goers finds it difficult to comprehend just how popular Roy was with the Saturday matinée crowd. I remember seeing westerns at a theater in my hometown in northern Arkansas in the early 1950's. When the previews of coming attractions flitted on the screen and Tim Holt or other popular six-gun heroes were shown the theater remained calm. But when Roy Rogers was advertised the whole movie house went crazy. The kids would scream, yell, throw popcorn, and cause a quiet riot. The manager would flip the lights on and off a few times, send ushers up and down the aisles, and sometimes even stop the show to restore order. That's how popular Roy was in those days.There are a few surprises in the cast. Look for future western star and husband of Dinah Shore, George Montgomery, in a bit part as a telegrapher. Duncan Renaldo, the future Cisco Kid, plays the chief Mexican police official. Glenn Strange, who would later play the Frankenstien monster in films after Boris Karloff tired of the role, can be seen in a small part. There is an array of henchmen from Republic's gallery of outlaws including Budd Osborne and George Chesebro. The viewer may not recognize the names but will know all the familiar faces. Director Joseph Kane who would go on to direct many a television western in that medium's early years does a routine but adequate job behind the camera. There is a major criticism of his methods. Why did he shoot most of the action sequences at night? Budget perhaps. At times it's hard to see some of the action shots because of the darkness. Otherwise, a good introduction to Roy Rogers films for the uninitiated. For the fans: Get ready for some straight shooting.

classicsoncall It's 1900, and Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders have returned from Cuba. Roy Rogers and friends Rusty Coburn (Eddie Acuff) and Tommy Ward (Ray Hatton) seek work as border patrol agents, with the personal recommendation of Roosevelt himself. The border patrol captain is willing to take them on, especially since outlaw Arizona Jack is marauding the border passes and seeking refuge in Mexico. Adding drama to the plot is the presence of Dorothy Blair (Mary Hart), as the daughter of the owner of the Amco Mining Company. Rogers has orders to detain her, but when a fight breaks out in the cantina she escapes on a Mexican stagecoach, only to be captured by the bandits.Roy Rogers has the uncanny ability to walk into any situation, no matter how grim, and pick up a guitar to sing a song. This happens twice in Roundup - first in the unfriendly environs of the local cantina, and then again when captured and secured in Arizona Jack's bandit hideout; it's not very believable given the situation.Be attentive for a continuity goof in a chase scene in the second half of the film; as Arizona Jack's gang pursues Roy and Rusty on horseback, the good guys string a rope across their path to knock the first two riders off their horses. But as the bandits get up to dust themselves off, the rope is back in place again."Rough Riders Roundup" moves along at a brisk fifty eight minute pace, and as mentioned, has the obligatory fisticuffs, chase scenes and gunfights expected in a "B" western. One overlooked detail though - Roy appears to ride his trusty palomino Trigger in the film, however Trigger is not top billed as "The Smartest Horse in the Movies" in this flick. I assume he fired his agent before the next picture!