Roy Rogers starred in Nineteen Trucolor films for Republic Pictures from 1947 up to 1950 but for whatever reason, even as early as 1952, some of these were re-issued in Black and White.

The market for B Westerns pretty much came to an end at the cinema in the mid fifties, so these were released in Black and White mainly to save costs.

A number of Roy Rogers films were sold to TV in 1956 but with some cuts to the running time. That sadly meant that a lot of the original footage was discarded

Showing on Talking Pictures over this weekend was a really good one – ‘Springtime in the Sierras’ from 1947 and this one had a much bigger budget. It was in colour – this time Trucolor – but it did give the film a good look. The outdoor shots of Roy on Trigger were impressive – Trigger’s colour seemed ideally suited to Trucolor.

The film had been restored to it’s original length I am pleased to say

Some of the studio sets also were very good indeed – just look at the pictures BELOW

The film was directed by William Witney

At the end of the film, in the last few frames, I saw something that I have never seen in a film before. In the Theatre we are used to seeing the end of the play and then the actors appear before us to take the applause and take a bow.

Well – at the end of this film the actors do a similar thing and walk towards the camera and all stand in a line smiling towards us the audience.
Very effective I thought – and original

Jane Frazee was Roy Roger’s leading lady in ‘Springtime in the Sierras’ as she was in a total of Five films with him for Republic Pictures – I think that they were all in Trucolor too.

Jane Frazee ABOVE

This film had reliable sidekick Andy Devine looking very young – he was good as usual and gave us that bit of humour needed – and there was also Bob Nolan and The Sons of the Pioneers – Roy Roger’s backing group for years

Andy Devine as we all know, had a very lengthy and successful career and in the early fifties became well known playing his usual role in ‘The Adventure of Wild Bill Hickock’ which ran from 1951 to 1958 and Andy played in 112 episodes

Later in 1960 he was in one that I liked ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ which also starred famous boxer Archie Moore as Jim – he was very good too.

Andy Devine was also surprised and became the subject of ‘This is Your Life’ on 2 February 1955

Andy Devine with his two boys on the set of ‘Canyon Passage’ which I think they were all played in this film. ABOVE