Grand Canyon Trail (1948)

Sadly Over-hyped

As Good As It Gets

Admirable film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Some poor editing prevents this particular Roy Rogers western from being one of his better ones from Republic. The Grand Canyon Trail also does not have the greatest group of songs.The story line gets a bit incoherent at times. Jane Frazee comes west to see if an old silver mine that her boss Charles Coleman had sold stock in was really played out as chief engineer Bob Livingston has told them. She thinks not. Also investigating is Roy Rogers who because Andy Devine invested his money in this silver mine has now a real interest in seeing it's not a dud.Old timer Emmett Lynn might have the key, but he's rather inconveniently disappeared. It's the sloppy editing around his part that makes the plot hard to follow at times, you have to fill in the blanks.Former Mesquiteer Livingston shows up this time on the wrong side of the law and perennial western villain Roy Barcroft is his chief henchman.Andy Devine usually provides a lot of the comedy in the Roy Rogers films of this period, but we have a special treat in the person of familiar Laurel&Hardy stooge James Finlayson. Jimmy plays a rather dull witted sheriff who Frazee and the Riders of the Purple Sage get him tangled in his own handcuffs. Finlayson must have thought he was back with Stan and Ollie with that routine. All done on a moving stagecoach as well. I wish we had more Finlayson in the film.The Grand Canyon Trail while not anything outstanding should please a lot of Roy Rogers fans out there.

I'd have to say that this was a little embarrassing for the 'King of the Cowboys'; made in 1948, the picture came out a decade after Roy Rogers' earliest pictures in which he had a starring role. Roy's character comes off as a bit clueless in this one, along with his female co-star Jane Frazee, who alternates her allegiance between Roy and Robert Livingston, portraying chief bad guy Bill Regan. The whole story seems kind of muddled, with missed opportunities for what could have been an entertaining hour or so. Like the legend of the 'Hangman's Hotel' for example, which says the hanged man comes to life at midnight. With Andy Devine in the cast as Cookie Bullfincher, you would think the story would get a little mileage out of that set up. Instead, you have some convoluted proceedings that would have been better served if this had been a Bowery Boys flick. It was a sad attempt at a haunted hotel gimmick that relied on poor old Genevieve, who truth be told, wound up getting more screen time than Trigger, who's contract as 'Smartest Horse in the Movies' didn't have anything to say about getting upstaged by a mule. And then you have Foy Willing and his Riders of the Purple Sage replacing Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers for your musical interlude. I don't know about you, but it was already half way into the picture and I was still looking for Pat Brady - oh well! Yet there was still an interesting element to be found here if you were looking hard enough, and that turned out to be Roy's athletic dismount of Trigger while still on the run from the bad guys. OK, it was probably a stunt double, but I haven't seen that one before in a couple hundred Westerns.Jane Frazee does the honors as the female lead in this picture, as she would in four other films opposite Roy in the 1947/1948 time frame. In "Under California Stars", she appeared as Andy Devine's cousin, appropriately named Caroline Bullfincher. You're never quite convinced what side she'll come in on in this story though, since she starts out pretending to be someone she's not, and winds up on the good guy side almost by accident.Fans of the old Laurel and Hardy films might be as surprised as I was to see James Finlayson here as the Sheriff of Sintown. I would have liked a little more comedy relief written into his role, but he played it pretty straight after all. I had to wonder, when it was all over, why he and old Vanderpool (Charle Coleman) wound up in the mine shaft with Cookie when there was no reason for that to be. Just a way to close it out I guess, with about as much thought as went into the rest of the picture. I hate to be that harsh, but if you've seen enough Roy Rogers flicks, you've got to know that this was not one of his finer efforts.Say, Sintown - I wonder if that's the same place that grew up to be Sin City?

Grand Canyon Trail is another of the Trucolor Roy Rogers films that has shown up on DVD from a black and white print. That does not take away from the movie since black and white was so common at the time anyway.Roy appeared kind of dumb in this one, and so did everyone else. It was customary for the lead cowboy to be able to figure out the crooks' plan and identify the leader. Roy took forever to suspect Regan, and it was only after other characters helped him that he ever learned anything. Instead of standing on guard duty and being prodded by Cookie, Foy, and the Riders of the Purple Sage, he should have already scouted around looking for clues. As much interaction as there was between the cowboys and Regan's crew someone should have suspected something sooner. There was no battle of wits. Carol Martin never figured out who wanted to hurt her and who wanted to save her until almost the end of the movie despite how obvious it was.Roy got in a lot of fist fights in this one. More than once he got clobbered over the head and knocked out. Andy Devine bounced people around with his stomach. The sound effect of a kettle drum would have been perfect if not for the fact that the movie was not a vehicle for slapstick comedy.The Hangman Hotel was an abandoned old building that provided an opportunity for plenty of haunted house stick comedy. There were scenes of characters chasing from one room to the other with fights throughout the building and crossed paths between the good guys and bad guys. Seeing Andy Devine scream once is funny, but there can be too much of a good thing. The hotel was critical to the story as it was the site where a murder victim was discovered, but the hotel was over-used.Seeing Robert Livingston go from the leader of the Three Mesquiteers to playing a villain is disheartening. Above all he was an actor who played the part of Regan perfectly. Watching past heroes playing villains or small roles always comes across as sad because few of them ever went back to the glory of their previous films.Overall the story was good, but it I think the characters could have been developed a little better. Not a bad movie, Grand Canyon Trail is a lull in the Roy Rogers series despite having a great cast and, for some, Trucolor.

"Grand Canyon Trail" is another in the series of Trucolor musical westerns turned out by Republic Pictures in the late 40's starring Roy Rogers. This one is one of the better series entries.The plot concerns the efforts by Roy and the boys to find a lost silver mine. The musical content is kept to a minimum and Director William Witney keeps the action flowing.What makes this film interesting is its supporting cast. Robert Livingston, who only a few short years before had been Republic's up and coming star, plays the chief villain. He is probably best remembered for his role as Stoney Brooke in the Three Mesquiteer series. In the best Witney tradition, Livingston murders a helpless old prospector. Roy Barcroft is along as Livingston's chief henchman.Old time movie fans will recognize Laurel & Hardy's old foil Jimmy Finlayson as the sheriff. Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage replace The Sons of the Pioneers in this one. Jane Frazee in the Dale Evans role and Andy Devine as "Cookie" round out the cast.Not a bad way to spend an hour or so.