Utah is one of the dumber Roy Rogers films out there. Mainly because Roy and Gabby Hayes nearly get hoisted on their own petards pulling a practical joke on Dale Evans and her friends.
Dale's the absentee owner of the Bar X ranch in Utah which Roy runs and sends her a monthly check while she pursues a show business career. That aspect of the plot is actually close to the life of the real Dale Evans who wanted to star in musical comedy. She's starring in a review ready to open when the backer pulls out. Dale needs money fast so she decides to sell the old Utah homestead.
Well she can't do that decide Roy and Gabby because the guy that wants to buy is a no good sheepherder who will be violating the unwritten code of the west and not sticking to his side of the valley with his sheep. Not to mention the fact that these two will have to go out and look for other jobs.
For reasons I still can't figure out they pretend Gabby's little shack is the headquarters for Dale's ranch and she and her showgirl friends get put there. A little joke which gets turned on them when she decides to sell what she thinks is worthless.
Not that Roy's westerns at Republic resembled Hamlet or MacBeth or even High Noon, but this one was too ridiculous. Even at the beginning when villains Grant Withers and Hal Taliaferro decide to ambush Roy when he goes to meet Dale's train. Roy and Gabby are NOT armed. Roy pretends to fall off Trigger and the two bad guys see Trigger emerge apparently riderless, but it's really Roy hanging on the side. Then still unarmed he and Gabby go to confront them and the villains who are armed run. I am still trying to figure that one out.
Obviously Herbert J. Yates must have had his mind on the latest big budget spectacular with Vera Hruba Ralston or he might have noticed something. Utah doesn't even have any really good musical numbers. The only one is at the finale where Roy, Gabby, and the Sons of the Pioneers help Dale and her friends with their show.
I'm not sure Roy and Dale's best fans liked this one.
Dale's the absentee owner of the Bar X ranch in Utah which Roy runs and sends her a monthly check while she pursues a show business career. That aspect of the plot is actually close to the life of the real Dale Evans who wanted to star in musical comedy. She's starring in a review ready to open when the backer pulls out. Dale needs money fast so she decides to sell the old Utah homestead.
Well she can't do that decide Roy and Gabby because the guy that wants to buy is a no good sheepherder who will be violating the unwritten code of the west and not sticking to his side of the valley with his sheep. Not to mention the fact that these two will have to go out and look for other jobs.
For reasons I still can't figure out they pretend Gabby's little shack is the headquarters for Dale's ranch and she and her showgirl friends get put there. A little joke which gets turned on them when she decides to sell what she thinks is worthless.
Not that Roy's westerns at Republic resembled Hamlet or MacBeth or even High Noon, but this one was too ridiculous. Even at the beginning when villains Grant Withers and Hal Taliaferro decide to ambush Roy when he goes to meet Dale's train. Roy and Gabby are NOT armed. Roy pretends to fall off Trigger and the two bad guys see Trigger emerge apparently riderless, but it's really Roy hanging on the side. Then still unarmed he and Gabby go to confront them and the villains who are armed run. I am still trying to figure that one out.
Obviously Herbert J. Yates must have had his mind on the latest big budget spectacular with Vera Hruba Ralston or he might have noticed something. Utah doesn't even have any really good musical numbers. The only one is at the finale where Roy, Gabby, and the Sons of the Pioneers help Dale and her friends with their show.
I'm not sure Roy and Dale's best fans liked this one.