In Old Cheyenne (1941)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Joan Woodbury's accent is a bit lame--why did they force her in this sort of role? reporter In an odd sort of role, Roy Rogers plays a reporter from New York who has traveled to Wyoming to write a story about the lawless land. However, although he's been told that the problem is a cantankerous old man named Arapaho Brown (Gabby Hayes), the real problem is the usual rich boss-man (Drummond) who plans on using his gang of hired thugs to force everyone out of the county. Along the way to help Roy in his investigations is J. Farrell MacDonald (a fine old character actor) and two really annoying women. The worst of these was played by Joan Woodbury--whose Spanish accent was laughably bad. However, despite her bad acting (and it was bad), the film is a typically good Rogers outing--not brilliant but breezy and enjoyable. Another plus that helped the film's pacing was that the number of musical numbers was reasonable--not jam-packed with song after song like a few of his movies. Worth your time.

"In Old Cheyenne" is a refreshingly quick paced Roy Rogers adventure, somewhat unusual in that even though Gabby Hayes is on hand, the comic relief is supplied by his character's frisky daughter, 'Squeak' Brown (Sally Payne). That's her comment in my summary line above, delivered right after she meets Steve Blane (Rogers), and lassos him into attending the local square dance. Not to be outdone though, did you catch that gun twirl Gabby performs right about the same time? Wow! - there's a talent that he should have displayed more often in the Westerns he appeared in; it was so quick it was hard to follow - even when I did a quick rewind to catch it a few more times.Now here's something I was thinking about as the story progressed. Roy's character is a newspaper reporter from New York, who about half way through the story transforms into a life long cowboy, what with his riding and shooting skills. How exactly did that happen? Granted, it's mentioned he was born in Wyoming and later moved East, but still, you don't shoot a gun out of someone's hand without practice.As for the story, it's one of your typical 'get the goods' on the bad guy who's out to force local ranchers off of their properties. The hook here is that villain Sam Drummond (George Rosener) is using his henchmen to cause general mayhem, while blaming it all on a desperado who's well known by name but rarely seen - Arapaho Brown (that's Gabby). Actually that one had me scratching my head too, because Gabby's character seemed fairly well recognized by everyone, but nobody knows his name. Particularly since Drummond himself had his goons knock off Brown's former employer twenty years earlier.Oh well, these stories didn't have to make a lot of sense back in the day for a less discerning audience. I get over the nonsense pretty quickly as well, as Roy is my favorite cowboy star of the era. If you keep a sharp eye, you'll catch another East Sider (counting Roy as one here), Billy Bendict, in that role as the train vendor. Did he have anything you'd want or what? Notwithstanding my summary quote, best line of the picture goes to uncredited Fern Emmett as Miss Smith, who upon meeting Roy's character for the first time exclaims - "Land o' Goshen, and me with a face full of nails"! You'll just have to see it.

I guess I'm too questioning to give most movies high grades. In this one, for example: Okay - Roy was born in Wyoming but now he's a New York reporter, sent back home to do a story on the discord between cattlemen and homesteaders. He mustn't have been away long, 'cause he sure hasn't lost any of his excellent horsemanship; or even his ability to call a square dance. Well, if that's all that makes you raise your eyebrows, then this is at least up to standard. Gabby Hayes is here: Accused of being responsible for much more nefariousness than is correct: Somebody else was actually doing all of those bad things and HE was getting implicated, as Roy learns. The object of their efforts is to expose the PROPER party, using - among other tools - a Cheyenne newspaper. Typical, early 40s, b-&-w, one-hour western.

As one of the earlier Roy Rogers features, the emphasis of "In Old Cheyenne" is on action, and there is plenty of it. The story and cast are pretty good, with Roy as a reporter (from New York, of all places) sent to Wyoming to get the story on a series of holdups and other outrages being led by a notorious criminal. Gabby Hayes has one of his cantankerous old-timer roles, Joan Woodbury is a singer whom Roy befriends, and J. Farrell McDonald plays the singer's father. There are also plenty of bad guys around, and a couple of interesting developments as you find out what everyone is up to. It moves quickly, and works well as light entertainment.