User Reviews

Roy and Gabby open the picture as Confederate soldiers, having some fun while tormenting a Union Colonel by stealing his barbecue chicken and running off with his trousers. With the end of the War, both men head back to Texas, where Gabby intends to claim his half share of a cattle ranch. Westerns of the era often relied on mathematically impossible odds to tell their story, and so it is here when Gabby and Roy show up in Texas, and their unknown partner turns out to be the same Colonel Denbigh (Wade Boteler) they outwitted back in Virginia. Fortunately, Denbigh has a pretty daughter (Lynne Roberts as Mary Hart) to take the viewer's mind off of this improbable coincidence.

It turns out that Colonel Denbigh is actually noble in his pursuit of Southern Reconstruction. However he's blindsided by ex-soldiers wearing Union uniforms who pursue tax collection under the law to confiscate property from the local ranchers. Before the good guys get to set things straight, Gabby gets involved in a gunfight showdown with Denbigh. No one would have gotten hurt, as Roy rigged both mens' firearms with blanks, but one of outlaw Jeffries' (Arthur Loft) men bushwhacks the Colonel, putting even more pressure on Roy to nail the bad guys.

Coming in at just under an hour, this is a fine early Roy Rogers effort, with a few campfire songs in which Roy takes the lead. He serenades Ellen with one early in the picture, and it paid off by the finale as Roy convinces his new fiancé to stick around instead of heading back East. Ornery Gabby gets in a lick about those 'durn women', but it's all in good stride.

Roy had a number of pictures using the Civil War as a backdrop, and would find himself in roles on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. In 1940's "Young Bill Hickok", he portrays the legendary Westerner taking side with the Union, while trying to balance a precarious relationship with a Southern belle.

Yes, it's Gabby Hayes speaking in my review title, in his first role as Roy Rogers' sidekick. He had transferred his allegiance from Paramount to Republic pictures. As Hopolong Cassidy's sidekick, he was known by the moniker Windy, but Paramount wouldn't allow Republic to use this moniker. Hence, Hayes was given the moniker Gabby, which connotes the same idea as Windy: that among other things, he was an old windbag........I haven't yet seen any other movies featuring Roy plus Gabby, but my impression is that Gabby takes on a larger role as Roy's sidekick, compared to being Hoppy's sidekick, where sometimes he was little more than a bewhiskered buffoon. This is not surprising, as Hoppy had a young sidekick, in addition, who shared the sidekick functions........In comparing Roy to Bill Boyd(Hopalong), Roy was much more laid back, although Boyd had been gradually loosening up over time. Also, Roy usually sang a number songs(3 in this film), whereas Hoppy tried to keep musical numbers to a minimum: perhaps 1 per film, and he had sidekick Lucky or someone else do the singing. Roy's association with the leading lady(Lynne Roberts) was closer than was typical for Hoppy's association with his leading lady. Roy even, in effect, proposed marriage at the end, whereas Hoppy would never think of doing that nor accept such a proposal.........This is mostly a post-Civil War story, although the war wasn't quite over at the beginning of the film. Hence, Gabby happened to find alone a Union Colonel(Denby)(very unlikely), stuck him up, stole his cooking chicken, and even made him take his pants off! So, why did he and Roy let him go free? Some Union officers were fast on Roy's heels........Impossibly, when Gabby and Roy went to see Gabby's recently inherited 50% stake in a Texas ranch, they discovered that Colonel Denby(Wade Boteler) held the other 50%!(Quite unlikely for a Union Colonel!). Fortunately, the Colonel was tapped to be the military governor of that section of Texas. That meant he had to stay in town and leave the management of the ranch to Gabby........Now, the main problem to be solved in this yarn is that the patrol of 'soldiers' assigned to enforce Denby's laws are a group of dishonorably discharged Union soldiers(so why are they still wearing Union outfits, and why are they still considered Union soldiers??) that their captain(Jeffries) apparently picked. Turns out he is no better than them in overcharging the citizens for back taxes, in US money. If they couldn't pay, the 'soldiers' would steal things in lieu, and often roughed up the citizens. Unfortunately, Colonel Denby doesn't know this. It's up to Roy and Gabby to so convince him, and organize the citizens to form a posse to fight this gang of thieves(Colonel Denby dies, thus there is a power vacuum, in which Captain Jeffries is the apparent provisional authority until another can be appointed). I will stop here and let you see the movie.........See it at YouTube

"Southward Ho!" was originally released back in 1939.

Anyway - As the story goes - Returning to Texas after fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War, Roy and Gabby find that half the ranch Gabby inherited belongs to the Union captain they argued with in the war. The Union captain is also in charge of the Reconstruction of Texas and is also in charge of tax collection.

This Roy Rogers/Gabby Hayes entry has a rather peculiar screenplay by Gerald Geraghty and Jack Natteford, based on an original screen story by John Rathmell. (These writing credits are taken directly from the movie itself. In most reference sources, including IMDb, they are listed differently. This is not to say that IMDb is wrong. It could be argued that mistakes that occur in credit titles are simply too expensive to correct). And as we might expect from quickie director, Joseph Kane, the script is too broadly played by the cast (especially Gabby Hayes) and rather too hastily photographed by Jack Marta, whose work here is uncharacteristically flat. The 54 minutes DVD running time is also rather short on musical numbers, but it should be noted that this was the case right from the start. The theatrical print ran only 58 minutes and that would translate to only 56 minutes at DVD speed. This was Gabby's first movie as Roy's sidekick and the fact that he was billed second upset Republic's dream billing of "Rogers and Hart". Lynne Roberts, under her "Mary Hart" moniker is now billed third! In my opinion, she is rather too demure a heroine anyway! This movie certainly has its moments of excitement and the unfamiliar plot maintains sufficient interest in its rather odd turns of events (which I won't spoil for you here), despite the lumbering efforts of am amateurish support cast. As a rule, Rogers' vehicles increased in both slickness and thrills as his star status grew. This particular movie pales alongside the movies turned out by virtually the same crew just a few years later. Even the action highlights here are much tamer and much less exciting.

Roy Rogers' career as a leading man had been going for less than two years when he teamed with his soon-to-be friend and mentor George "Gabby" Hayes. The pairing was perfect. Roy summed up all that had come before him in the way of cowboy stars. Gabby would set the high mark for what a sidekick should be, mostly because of his superb abilities as an actor.

The story begins with Roy and Gabby serving in the Confederate army as they encounter a small group of Union troops under the leadership of Colonel Denbigh, played by Wade Boteler. Gabby and Colonel Denbigh exchange words before Gabby and Roy return to their own camp. Back at camp Gabby tells Roy about his inheritance of half a cattle ranch in Texas, and the two make plans for their new life as ranchers after the war. Upon arriving in Texas Gabby soon finds out that the person who owns the other half of his ranch is none other than the Union colonel with whom he had eluded during the war is his partner. The colonel also happens to have a beautiful daughter named Ellen, played by Mary Hart. As Gabby tangles with the colonel, Roy pursues Ellen.

The bad guys are Yankees! Or, at least they appear to be Yankees. Colonel Denbigh has been put in charge of restoring order during the era known as Reconstruction. Having been instructed that a detail of soldiers would arrive to help enforce laws and aid in tax collection, he does not suspect that the soldiers that arrive are all crooked men who were thrown out of the Army. As the outlaw gang operates under the guise of enforcing the law, Roy must find a way to help the ranchers that are being robbed and defeat the crooks. Of course he does it with great charm and lots of excitement.

Southward Ho is an excellent movie from the Roy Rogers series of western movies. The movie does not rely on too much singing and romance. Instead it moves along nicely with the plot getting thicker and the action getting better. This one is definitely a must-see!