Along the Navajo Trail (film)

Along the Navajo Trail
Directed by Frank McDonald
Produced by Edward J. White
Written by William Colt MacDonald (novel)
Gerald Geraghty
Starring Roy Rogers
George 'Gabby' Hayes
Dale Evans
Estelita Rodriguez
Music by Mort Glickman
Cinematography William Bradford
Edited by Tony Martinelli
Distributed by Republic Pictures
Release dates
September 15, 1945
Running time
66 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Along the Navajo Trail is a 1945 American western film directed by Frank McDonald and starring Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes and Dale Evans. The film's story was based on a William Colt MacDonald novel. The film marked the debut of the Cuban actress Estelita Rodriguez, who Republic Pictures then began to build up into a star. Its title song is Along the Navajo Trail, an instrumental version of which appears with the opening credits, with a brief vocal version during the last twenty seconds of the film. The first few bars of the song are used as background music in several chase scenes.[1]

The film was part of the long-running series of Roy Rogers films produced by the studio.[2]

Plot

Deputy U.S. Marshal Roy Rogers poses as a wandering poet, finding and defeating a group of bad guys who, for reasons they keep to themselves, are trying to oust a girl and her father from their ranch.[3] As the plot develops, it is revealed that they want the ranch so they can sell it to a company that wants to run an oil pipeline through a mountain pass at the edge of the property.

Roy comes to the town of Padre Wells, leaving his guns at his squatter's camp on the Ladder-A ranch. He gets into a fistfight with Rusty Channing, a cowboy from the Bridle-Bit ranch who is harassing a gypsy girl and her boyfriend. After defeating Channing, Bridle-Bit owner J. Richard Bentley advises Roy to bring his guns the next time he shows up. Roy returns to the Ladder-A, where he forms a relationship with the owner's daughter Lorrie Alastair, and moves into the bunkhouse. Lorrie's father has been shot in the arm by the bad guys who are after his ranch. A range war ensues, with Roy, the Ladder-A group and the gypsies on one side, and the Bridle-Bit gang and bad guys from the Santa Fe Oil Company on the other. The gypsy girl briefly has a crush on Roy, but his heart belongs to Lorrie. Ultimately there is a showdown at the Bridle-Bit, with the bad guys having the upper hand until the gypsies race in and save the day. Roy and Lorrie openly fall in love and live happily ever after.[4]

Main cast

References

  1. "Along the Navajo Trail". 1945. Retrieved 2014-09-21. 0:58 YouTube version of the 0:66 film
  2. Hurst p.232
  3. "Sleepy Horse Range, by William Colt MacDonald". Kirkus Review. Kirkus Reviews. 1938-02-18. Retrieved 2014-11-16.
  4. MacDonald, William Colt (1938). Fighting Kid from Eldorado (Sleepy Horse Range) (Avon 678 ed.). New York: Avon Publications, Inc.

Bibliography

External links

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