Home in Oklahoma (1946) User Reviews

The Great Train Ending

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 6 September 2007]

Roy Rogers (as Roy Rogers) is a newspaper editor who is also handy with a gun. George "Gabby" Hayes (as Gabby) is a ranch hand and child guardian. Dale Evans (as Connie) is a reporter covering "the story" -- which is the seemingly accidental death of wealthy ranch owner Sam Talbot, and the contested distribution of his estate. The estate, valued at approximately $5,000,000, is willed to the 12-year-old ward of Mr. Hayes, Lanny Rees (as Duke Lowery).

The story is reminiscent of several Rogers "save the ranch" stories, particularly "Sunset Serenade" (1942) **. This one is more fun -- look for the scene where Rogers teaches Ms. Evans to ride a horse, and how she "helps" him in a fistfight! Also, watch for Ruby Dandridge (mother of Dorothy Dandridge) as a superstitious maid ("Devoria") who may believe train whistles at night are ghosts; it's not a role filled with great racial integrity, but it's nice to see Ms. Dandridge at work.

Though the plot seems intriguing, there is little mystery to the routine "Home in Oklahoma" plot, which is a shame, because some film elements are quite nice. The title song is a good one, and the "Mignilite" duet is cute. Bob Nolan and the "Sons of the Pioneers" lend their helping hands. The movie offers the standard Rogers western fare: Fistfight, Shootout, and Chase. BUT, what an ending! -- you get a BONUS Fistfight, Shootout, and Chase… all at the Same Time!… AND… On Top of a Train! Have fun!

***** Home in Oklahoma (1946) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Dale Evans

Murder On The Ranch

[FightingWesterner · 7/10 · 16 May 2010]

Local newspaper man Roy Rogers probes the death of one of his friends, a rancher and high-end cattle breeder thrown from his horse and ends up protecting the rancher's heir, an orphan boy, from the ruthless killers. Meanwhile, big city reporter Dale Evans plans to scoop Roy on the story.

This is a decent enough cowboy murder mystery, with good performances by George "Gabby" Hayes, Ruby Dandridge (mother of Dorothy Dandrige), and Lanny Rees as the boy. Their scenes together are heart-warming.

Roy and Dale have great chemistry here - no surprise, since they got married on location, immediately after shooting wrapped.

The film's musical highlight is Bob Nolan and The Sons Of The Pioneers singing "The Everlasting Hills Of Oklahoma".

The killer's identities are as plain as the nose on your face, but it's still pretty good.

Roy and Dale try to solve an apparent murder mystery

[weezeralfalfa · 7/10 · 14 May 2019]

Cute Carol Hughes, as Jan Holloway, is a would be serial killer, beginning with her aged uncle, Sam, who owns a range specializing in very valuable Hereford breeding stock(about $30,000 per breeder, or $300,000. or so in today's currency). If you don't figure this out by her reaction to the reading of the will, later dialogue will confirm this long before it should. Her 2 accomplices are on her kill list near the end, as well as the official heir to the ranch: 12y.o. Duke(Lanny Rees), who will be under Gabby Hayes' guardianship until he is of age.......Actually, the story early on is that Sam died alone from a fall off his horse, which cracked his skull, hence there was no murder. But later events indicated that the coroner must have faked his conclusion, as part of a conspiracy. This could have been proven by exhuming Sam's body, but as events unfolded, this proved unnecessary.........Roy and Dale were both competing with each other to knab a news story and trying to cooperate in determining if Sam had been murdered. Dale had been sent by her St. Louis newspaper to do an article on the famous Hereford ranch, but got sidetracked by the question of whether Sam had been murdered. She tried to scoop Roy, who ran the local paper, by publishing a small article saying that Sam may have been murdered. She got thrown in jail for this, with Roy bailing her out. .........Roy put together 2 bits of information that suggested that Sam had been murdered. Firstly, Dale found Sam's watch, with his name on it, on the ground not far from where his body had been found. The watch, which was partially broken, had stopped. Roy made the assumption that the time indicated told the approximate time of his death. Then, Sam's housekeeper reported that Sam's horse came trotting home when the whistle from the daily morning train sounded. This was about a half hour before the time shown on the watch, suggesting that Sam was not near his horse when he died. This indicated that Sam must have dismounted considerably before he died.(Of course, he could have cracked his skull from a fall, then wandered around for some time before collapsing, and breaking his watch). However, Roy felt this favored the idea that he had been murdered. Actually, Roy and Dale did not solve the case. Rather, Duke, the heir, overheard the conspirators talking. This was followed by a confession to Roy and Gabby..........A number of songs were sung. While in his printing room, Roy sings "Wish I was a Kid Again". Later, the Sons of the Pioneers sing "The Everlasting Hills of Oklahoma". When Dale is in jail, Roy, outside her window, sing "The Jailhouse Song". At the community breakfast, the Sons of the Pioneers sing "Get the Cowboy Ham and Eggs". Then, Roy and Dale sing the Spanish song "Miguelito Later, the Flying L Ranch quartet sing "Hereford Heaven"(The name of the town near the ranch). In the finale, Roy, Dale, and Gabby sing the title song, as they ride into the sunset..........See the uncut version at YouTube

Lively

[dougdoepke · 28 June 2010]

Sprightly Roy & Dale Western from Republic. It's a fine energetic cast livening up a familiar plot of keeping the ranch out of the clutches of the bad guys. Roy and Dale are reporters trying to out-scoop one another, and it's not hard to see why they stayed together as a team —their easy-going banter puts A-picture pizazz into a B-movie oater. Ditto, the great Gabby Hayes whose gruff comedy relief too often masked genuine acting talent. For example, scope out his versatility here.

It's also well produced from Republic, with a lot of extras and even some location shots in the real Oklahoma (IMDB). That outdoor breakfast scene with all the local folks is charming. Of course there's the expected quota of action—a really rough fist-fight, some hard riding, and a pitched battle, all nicely paced by ace action director William Witney. Add vocals from the Sons of the Pioneers (I wish they had more) and you've got recipe for a really likable matinée Western. I guess my only negatives are the lack of good scenery and some rather poorly done process shots. Anyway, these are minor points. I'm just sorry these easy-going entertainments have ridden off into the proverbial sunset.

"...I have to print the news, no matter what it is".

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 12 June 2010]

"Home in Oklahoma" finds Roy and Dale as rival newspaper reporters, he of the local Hereford Heaven Star, and Dale as Connie Edwards from the big city St. Louis Chronicle. I had a little trouble wrapping my head around the name of Roy's home town, could it really have been called Hereford Heaven? So I do a quick Google search and I'll be darned. There's a town in southern Oklahoma called Ada where they have an annual three day auction in the heart of Hereford heaven. The world record price for a prize bull this year was fifty one thousand dollars, only twenty one thousand more than the one in the picture. Not much inflation in prize bulls if you think about it considering the picture was made sixty four years ago.

For a newspaper guy, Roy's considered the best scooper in the county, but I had to wonder if that depended on which end of the Hereford he was looking at. The bull in this picture is provided by the name challenged niece of the The Flying T Ranch, alternately called Jane, Jan and Jen throughout the story, at least to my ears. She's portrayed by Carol Hughes, looking an awful lot like Dale Evans, except Dale was blonde. By the time it's over, Jane comes close to capturing the title of most evil female villain in B Westerns, admitting to the murder of her uncle Sam Talbot, shooting undertaker Judnick in the back, and closing out the film by gunning down her partner Steve. But the worst of it was when she tried to kill the twelve year old orphan boy Duke (Lanny Rees) who inherited the ranch. That was one bad mama.

Of course, Gabby Hayes is on hand as the ranch foreman hoping to keep his job following the death of Talbot. He has some fun at Dale's expense during the breakfast club initiation. Roy's regulars, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers are also around, handling a number of well placed songs including the title tune bookending the picture. Roy shares a duet with Dale in a lively little number called 'Miguelito'.

What always gives me pause in these old Westerns is the way a lot of them approach the finale. The ending for this one is just a little insane if you stop and think about it. Jane's ranch hands are all gathered together in battle formation, and open fire as soon as Roy and his town crew come riding into view. I know it all made for good matinée viewing, but gee, were cowboys really settling their differences that way in the twentieth century? A couple of Roy's guys were mowed down in the charge and it seemed like just another day on the ranch.

One last observation. Trigger usually got top billing with Roy in all their pictures, but this one made me curious. Sam Talbot's horse Major had more screen time here and helped out with solving the murder of his master. In effect, he had a bigger role in the story. Where was Trigger's agent on that one?

There's elements of Greek tragedy and Shakespeare amongst the corn.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 25 July 2016]

Conspiracy theories are many in this western musical where the 12 year old son of a each hand is named as heir to the estate of the obviously murdered ranch owner. This infuriates the deceased man's only surviving relative, grasping Carol Hughes. It's up to singing cowboy Roy Rogers and visiting reporter Dale Evans to protect the heir and solve the crime, with the devoted help of the grizzled "Gabby" Hayes.

Pleasant and surprisingly smart, this has several pleasant musical numbers and a warm performance by the lovable Ruby Dandridge (mother of Dorothy) as the ranch housekeeper who provides her own theories to what happened. Lanny Rees is sincere and brave as the reluctant heir. Evans, more of a personality than an actress, is better than normal in this, and even gets to sing a duet with Rogers in Spanish. Less formula and a slightly better script keeps this crackin'.

Very, very formulaic

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 5 February 2013]

By 1946, the Roy Rogers films had evolved into a very familiar pattern. Most co-starred Dale Evans (usuallly playing headstrong women) and Gabby Hayes and most had a cute kid (usually a boy) as an important member of the cast. The Songs of the Pioneers were also on hand to sing a few tunes. Additionally, Rogers had become a bit of a caricature of himself. In other words, although supposedly a western, the films had Rogers playing a version of himself--a version carefully manicured to project him as an all-around swell guy and friend to children, old coots and the ladies. "Home in Oklahoma" has all of this.

The film begins with Gabby working at a ranch when the owner dies unexpectedly. Soon it's expected that his niece will assume control of the ranch. However, two things unexpectedly occur--the will does NOT leave the property to the niece AND it looks like the man's death was NOT an accident! However, Dale (who plays a spunky yet stupid reporter) doesn't heed Roy's suggestion that she waits to report this and soon she's in deep water with the Sheriff. She wrote in her paper that the man was murdered AND makes some pointed comments about who might be involved--which are WAY premature. Can Roy solve it and save Dale's fanny?

Although Roy always comes off as sweet, kind and swell, Dale often played annoying women. It must have been very thankless for her when she played women who hated Roy with little provocation or ladies who inadvertently help the bad guys because she won't listen to anyone. In this film, she hits Roy over the head with a chair when he's being attacked by a baddie (ooooops!) and gets thrown into jail for publishing crazy theories as facts. But I have seen her in these thankless roles too many times--so when I saw she was in the film, I was prepared for this! So, in light of all this predictability, is the movie any good? Well, it's certainly not great--but I was impressed that the ringleader of the evil doings was a bit of a surprise. In this sense, they did not follow the usual formula--a major plus in the film. Still, it's a rather trifle of a film--worth seeing if you love Rogers films but about as realistic as a Monty Python film in conveying historical events! My feeling is that THE big problem in the film is Dale. Had she been less unlikable and dopey, the film would have played a heck of a lot better.

By the way, like most of Roy's films, this one has been trimmed down to fit TV time slots during the 1950s--lopping almost 20 minutes off the picture. I saw the version that clocked in at under an hour--and there easily could be a longer version out there--as so many films come in multiple versions. So, perhaps the longer version is better...or worse. In most cases, one of the big differences between the two is the number of songs--in trimmed versions, most of the music has been removed.

Dueling Reporters

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 1 November 2006]

If Home In Oklahoma was located in the blue state east instead of the red state middle America, we might be talking about Tracy and Hepburn in the leads here.

One of the things that always runs through Roy Rogers and Dale Evans's films is the battle of the sexes banter. In this film they are rival reporters, he for his local Oklahoma town paper and she for a big newspaper in St. Louis. They're both hot for a scoop involving the death of a local millionaire rancher. Of course this being a Roy Rogers western, he's also a cowboy.

Hey, if Tracy and Hepburn could be rival lawyers in Adam's Rib, why can't Roy and Dale be rival reporters? Now don't expect the dialog to be on the level of Garson Kanin, but it ain't actually too bad.

Home in Oklahoma boasts a very nice title song that Roy recorded and did well in the country/western market. Too bad Rodgers&Hammerstein already wrote a nice Oklahoma song or this one might be the state song for the Sooner State.

Not Rogers at his best!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 3 February 2018]

Home in Oklahoma (available on a good Mill Creek DVD), is one of those murder mysteries you have when you're not having a murder mystery.

It takes the average audience thirty seconds to tumble to the killers, but dumb, slow-brained, small-town newspaper editor Roy Rogers has to be prodded by breezily pugnacious Dale Evans.

As you might expect from those opening sentences, there are not many spills or thrills in this one, even though it's directed by action specialist William Witney.

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 few Trucolor entries are presented in various shades of gray.