Night Time in Nevada (1948)

Unfortunately, in stark contrast to the excellent work DVD companies have done for Gene Autry and Bill Boyd, Roy Rogers has been treated rather shabbily. Many of the titles on sale offer blurry, faded, out-of-focus pictures with garbled and/or muffled sound tracks. Even worse, the Trucolor entries are often presented in various shades of gray. An exception is "Night Time in Nevada" (1948) which Mill Creek present in a well-graded black-and-white copy. I'd rather watch Trucolor, but even in black-and-white, the movie provides a feast for railroad buffs, plus fans of Grant Withers who turns in one of his most charismatic portrayals ever. In fact, I think Sloan Nibley wrote his screenplay primarily with Withers in mind as the villain, and then added Roy, Andy Devine and the super-wonderful George Carleton who plays the crooked lawyer.

Very odd, it seems like every reviewer on this board so far saw a different version of the film. My copy stated the picture in color at sixty seven minutes, but it was somewhat shorter and in black and white. The only song, if you can call it that, was a brief one liner with engineer Casey (Joseph Crehan) joining Roy and The Pioneers 'for old times sake'.Speaking of Casey, watch the scene closely where one of the bad guys shoots him while running the train. Did that bullet do a U-turn in mid air? Another example of the impossible logistics these old time Westerns often relied on. But I'm not complaining.Once the story gets underway, State Police captain Cookie Bullfincher swears in Roy as a deputy to solve a couple of crimes involving Roy's stolen cattle and a missing trust fund due Joan Andrews (Adele Mara), who's father was murdered twenty years earlier.You know what's spooky? I watched another flick just last night where a woman turning twenty one the very next day arrives on the scene to claim her inheritance. Her father also died in a mine cave-in twenty years ago. The picture was "Topper Returns" from 1941. What are the odds? Anyway, back to Nevada. Except for the early scene where Joan and her friend Toni Borden (Marie Harmon) take the stowaway cowboys on a joyride through the desert, the picture is played fairly straight with Andy Devine's character. He often plays a comedic sidekick to Roy, but here he was a pretty no-nonsense lawman. Still, when Cookie and Roy emerge from their jostling camper ride, they both have to clean up their flour-do.What's never in question with one of Roy's pictures, the bad guys lose in the end. But you know, I have to question Roy's common sense sometimes, like boarding Farrell's (Grant Withers) down hill, runaway cattle truck and duking it out with him with nothing but mountain on one side and air on the other. Not the kind of chance I'd bet the ranch on, even if I were King of the Cowboys.Say, does anyone know what happened to Toni?

Predictable but competent western from the usual suspects. I purchased this one on sale from TCM.Com. IMDb has it listed as "color", but the DVD version is quite black & white, so i'll add that. When Joan Andrews inherits a chunk of money from her prospector father, she goes out west to claim it, and runs into roadblocks and crooks along the way. The police (Andy Devine and Roy Rogers) set out to help her and get the crooks behind bars. Not a bad story. Adele Mara and Marie Harmon play the city slickers who go west, and play the helpless gals out of their element. A couple songs by the "Pioneers", of course. Did you also catch Hank Patterson as one of the tramps down by the tracks, with a speaking part? This was about 20 years before Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, where he played Mr. Ziffel. Directed by William Whitney, king of the westerns. Good way to spend 66 minutes.

Roy, Trigger & Andy Devine are featured in this 1940's shoot-em-up that involves mining company rip-offs, double-dealing and the obligatory cowboy crooning. The plot and action are pretty standard, and the music is noteworthy -- especially "Rock Candy Mountain". The King of the Cowboys was in fine form in this one, with Andy Devine as one of his better sidekicks (but not as good as Gabby !).The stunts in this film were well done and superior to most in other stars films. I enjoyed this one and felt that the pacing and casting were fairly good. Most of Roger's films from this period seem interchangeable , but fans of the genre should enjoy this ride down the Happy Trails..........