I noticed one reviewer described this film as looking 'garish'....and it is indeed an ugly looking color movie. This is because Republic Studio made many of its late 40s and early 50s B-movies in TruColor. While these films were color pictures, it was a second-rate color. This is because Technicolor was expensive and TruColor and Cinecolor were much cheaper alternatives...about the same price as black & white film stock. But these two color systems had serious drawbacks. Because they were two-color processes, they really did not provide a full spectrum of colors. Yellows and purples, for example, were not possible with TruColor or Cinecolor and the other colors tended to look orangy and greenish-blue. And, this weird spectrum only got worse as the films degraded...and the copy I found and dan-180 apparently found was pretty degraded...and is definitely very orangy. Ugly and garish are definitely the case with this film, though some TruColors and Cinecolor films have aged a bit better...and a few even worse.
The copy on YouTube also has another huge drawback. Like so many of the old B-westerns, this one has been trimmed to fit television time slots. While it originally ran 67 minutes, after trimming it's only about 52...and that's a lot of missing footage...too much. So, if you can find a different copy of the film, watch it--the color might be better and you might get more of the original movie.
The story itself is a cute supposedly behind the scenes movie starring the second-tier western star, Monte Hale. When it begins, Monte is trying to break into movies...and a cute kid (Bobby Blake) is trying to get his trick horse into films as well. But the fat-headed newcomer, radio cowboy Rod Mason (John Dehner) is determined to keep them out of pictures because he's a jerk and is very insecure. So, after Hale is discovered and put into one of Mason's films, Mason and his jerk friend both torture the horse when no one is looking in order to make him dangerous to ride!! Can Monte and the studio figure out the truth?
This film is neat because in addition to seeing Hale (who did a great job), you see other supposedly behind the scenes cameos with Republic stars Rocky Lane, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Red Barry. All in all a fun film...it's just such a darn shame it is so ugly and short.
By the way, I do wonder if this film was meant as some sort of commentary about specific jerk western stars. I know, for instance, that 1930s star Ken Maynard has a horrible reputation as a real jerk-face once the cameras started rolling. I could guess as to which other stars (particularly ex-Republic stars) the film might also be alluding to, but know that Ken Maynard (not to be mixed up with his nice-guy brother, Kermit) was pretty much hated by everyone in the industry.
The copy on YouTube also has another huge drawback. Like so many of the old B-westerns, this one has been trimmed to fit television time slots. While it originally ran 67 minutes, after trimming it's only about 52...and that's a lot of missing footage...too much. So, if you can find a different copy of the film, watch it--the color might be better and you might get more of the original movie.
The story itself is a cute supposedly behind the scenes movie starring the second-tier western star, Monte Hale. When it begins, Monte is trying to break into movies...and a cute kid (Bobby Blake) is trying to get his trick horse into films as well. But the fat-headed newcomer, radio cowboy Rod Mason (John Dehner) is determined to keep them out of pictures because he's a jerk and is very insecure. So, after Hale is discovered and put into one of Mason's films, Mason and his jerk friend both torture the horse when no one is looking in order to make him dangerous to ride!! Can Monte and the studio figure out the truth?
This film is neat because in addition to seeing Hale (who did a great job), you see other supposedly behind the scenes cameos with Republic stars Rocky Lane, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Red Barry. All in all a fun film...it's just such a darn shame it is so ugly and short.
By the way, I do wonder if this film was meant as some sort of commentary about specific jerk western stars. I know, for instance, that 1930s star Ken Maynard has a horrible reputation as a real jerk-face once the cameras started rolling. I could guess as to which other stars (particularly ex-Republic stars) the film might also be alluding to, but know that Ken Maynard (not to be mixed up with his nice-guy brother, Kermit) was pretty much hated by everyone in the industry.