User Reviews

There are two main types of Roy Rogers films--the early ones (which are quite good) and the later ones (which, sad to say, are pretty limp). Why the difference? Well, the early ones are much more plot-driven and have only a bit of singing here and there. The later ones, generally, are more personality-driven and little attempt is made to make it look like the old West. Roy plays Roy--and there is so much singing that it's more like a musical variety show than a western. I frankly hate these films and look for the better early ones--like "Sheriff of Tombstone".

The film begins with Roy and Gabby playing lawmen. They're leaving town because they have successfully civilized the place--bringing law and order to everyone. However, a nasty rogue is going to Tombstone ('Shotgun' Cassidy) and this galoot claims that they're making him sheriff!! Obviously something is amiss--and the pair decide they'll check out this lawless town. And so, posing as Shotgun, Roy investigates--that is, after Gabby shoots the real one (don't worry folks, he DID have it coming).

As I said above, the film is very story-driven. The story, while a bit familiar, is well-acted--with nice dialog and enjoyable characters. Not a brilliant film but a very enjoyable one--and all good fun.

"Sagebrush Troubadour" director Joseph Kane's B-movie musical western "Sheriff of Tombstone" has nothing to do with Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and the Clanton gang. Roy is a former Deputy Marshall from Dodge City who turns in his badge after things simmer down and the town settles into peaceful tranquility. Not only does Brett Starr (Roy Rogers) leave the famous Kansas town, but also an unsavory as well as unshaven hombre named Cassidy (Harry Woods of "Monkey Business") plans to pull up stakes, too. Cassidy is widely known for his use of a double-barrel shotgun. A lot of animosity exists between these two characters. "King of the Cowboys" scenarist Olive Cooper wrote this Roy Rogers saga based on "Pride of the Navy" scribe James Webb's original story. Cooper conjures up some good dialogue. Essentially, this oater concerns corrupt officials who rule Tombstone and are doing their best to ruin a harmless old lady, Granny Carson (Zeffie Tilbury of "Camille"), who has struck it rich with a mining claim. Unfortunately, Granny cannot ship bullion to pay her taxes because evil Mayor Luke Keeler (Addison Richards of "Flying Tigers") and saloon owner A.J. Slade (Hal Taliaferro of "Ramrod"), have joined forces to compel Granny into relinquishing her claim because she cannot pay those taxes. They plan to buy her property out. Granny, however, is not inclined to accommodate as readily as Keeler and Slade want. Meantime, Keeler and Slade have another conspirator, Wells Fargo Agent John Anderson (Jay Novello of "The Wonderful Country"), who masquerades as a Mexican bandit named Joe Martinez. Brett Starr arrives in Tombstone and thwarts some men who plunder a clothing store run by Granny's daughter Mary (Elyse Knox of "The Mummy's Tomb"), and Brett takes a fancy to her. He forces the men not only to pay for the dresses they have taken but also to wear them. When Keeler and Slade hear about this encounter, they leap to the conclusion that Brett is actually Cassidy. After Brett left town, he joined up with his relatives to ride to Tombstone, and his friend Judge Gabby Whittaker (George 'Gabby' Hayes of "Blue Steel") rides along with them. During the journey, our heroes have another encounter with the slippery Cassidy. At one point, Gabby plays poker with Cassidy and loots his winnings. The notorious Cassidy tries to bushwhack Gabby in the barn, but the resourceful Gabby surprises him, whirls around in time, and wounds Cassidy. Eventually, when they reach Tombstone, Gabby runs into his own relatives. After the mayor decides to hire Brett as town marshal because he believes erroneously that Brett is Cassidy, Brett learns about Granny's predicament. When Brett tries to ride shotgun on a stagecoach with bullion, he smells an ambush and has the driver reverse the stage and return to Tombstone. During the fray, Brett catches a bullet so that he must have his hand bandaged, but so to does Martinez. "Sheriff of Tombstone" is one of those rare sagebrushers where Roy is wounded. The musical numbers don't slow down the action and each is relatively minor. As usual, Harry Woods makes an excellent villain. "Sheriff of Tombstone" is an adequate shoot'em up with good dialogue and interesting characters, particularly Jay Novello in a dual role.

Yep, Jay Novello plays 2 badmen: one being Mexican gunslinger Joe Martinez, leader of the hatchet men for the town-bound crooks Mayor Keeler(Addison Richards), and saloon owner Slade(Hal Taliaferro), who are determined to steal Grannie Carson's rich silver mine through stealing her silver shipments to make her bankrupt, and buying her foreclosed mine from substantial back taxes she owes. Norvello is also quiet John Anderson, Wells Fargo agent, who communicates to the other badmen when a shipment of silver is due out, so they can rob it. .......There's yet another badman in gunslinger 'Shotgun' Cassidy(Harry Woods), who acts like the original book version of Hopalong Cassidy. We meet him briefly in Dodge City, along with sheriff Brett Starr(Roy). Both are planning to leave Dodge City soon, for different reasons. Cassidy has been offered the position of sheriff, in the rowdy town of Tombstone, AZ. Starr figures Dodge City has become a much more civilized town, and he wants to join his 2 brothers in Tombstone(actually, one is dead). Clearly, Starr is looking like a mimic of historical Wyatt Earp, so far, but he will veer off on his own tangent soon after he gets there. Cassidy must have taken the scenic route, as Starr, joined by Gabby Hayes, arrive there much sooner. The 2 see a boisterous crowd of men in front of Mary Carson's dress shop, making fun of some of her dresses. Starr doesn't like this and points his sawed-off shotgun at the Clay brothers(who obviously are stand ins for the historic Clanton brothers). and demands that they pay for the dresses, and put them on, to the amusement of all.(Why was Roy carrying a sawed-off shotgun, as I've never before seen him use one? Was he trying to impersonate Cassidy?). In any case, Mayor Keeler and Slade are drawn out of the mayor's office to find out what is going on. Seeing Starr with the shotgun, and impressed with his treatment of the Clays, they assume he is Cassidy, and immediately pin the sheriff's badge on him. Starr doesn't complain.........Soon, Gabby's daughter, Queenie(Sally Payne), arrives on the stage, looking for her father. Slade immediately likes her looks and persona, and offers her a job as an entertainer, which she accepts. Here and there, she sings a couple of rousing songs. Sally usually sang a rousing number or two in her Roy Rogers films. .........I don't think boneheads Slade and Keeler ever figured out that Martinez and Anderson were the same person! Starr put a couple of clues together and guessed correctly.........Meanwhile, the real Shotgun Cassidy arrives and is none too happy that Starr has stolen his identity. He announces that from now on, he is sheriff. Starr is soon awarded the consolation prize of being appointed a deputy marshal. ........Starr arranges a meeting of all the regional mine owners, and begs them to loan Grannie a collective $100,000. she needs to pay her back taxes. Apparently, Starr succeeded. .........Eventually, there's a gun battle between the bad guys and the guards of the silver-loaded stages. Martinez and Cassidy escape, and go to town to set up an ambush for Starr and Gabby. But, Starr smells the ambush and sneaks around town. He sneaks in the room where Martinez and henchman Crawley are, and ties them up. But, they leave and Cassidy arrives and unties the two. Starr and Gabby go to the saloon, hoping to arrest Slade and Keller, in the adjoining office. Cassidy and Crawley stick their noses in the door and are about to shoot Starr, when Gabby sees them and warns Starr, whose shots are first and on target. The surviving crooks are led off to jail, while Starr and Mary flirt.......An enjoyable addition to the Roy Rogers films collection......See it at YouTube.

Having ignored this genre of films for years (due to the enormous amount of material available and the presumed predictability of these films), I have come to enjoy some of them to the point of opening myself up to studying them further. In the case of "Sheriff of Tombstone", I found this one instantly satisfying, whether it be through the mistaken identity plot line or the efforts of the town's sinister mayor to keep gold claim owners from getting their gold to the mint. Roy Rogers is mistaken for a gun-slinging crook because he is holding the man's sawed-off shotgun, and made sheriff of the very corrupt town of Tombstone. Store owner Elyse Knox, granddaughter of the feisty Zeffie Tilbury, at first wants nothing to do with Rogers, believing him to be this bad man, and is surprised when Rogers offers her family help in order to protect her claim. But the real gunslinger arrives and this leads to a show-down between good and evil.

Tilbury, a delightfully spry elder lady, steals every scene she is in. Best known to "Our Gang" fans as the cranky old lady who befriends Spanky and the gang in "Second Childhood" and as the grandmother in "The Grapes of Wrath", Tilbury is the type of actress who has you eating out of her hands the moment she pops up on the screen, even though she is in only a few scenes here. She reminds me of Judith Lowry, the elderly character actress of the 1970's whom TV audiences adored for her feisty Mother Dexter on "Phyllis". Sally Payne also offers some amusing moments as George "Gabby" Hayes' estranged daughter who gets to perform a few musical numbers along with Rogers. "B" westerns may not necessarily make you think too much, but they are pleasing time-passers, and this one is among the better ones which I have seen.

"Sheriff of Tombstone" borrows some history from the legend of Wyatt Earp, as Brett Starr (Roy Rogers) says goodbye to Dodge City and heads west to Tombstone to visit family and search for adventure. Along the way he hooks up with friend and judge, Gabby Whitaker (Gabby Hayes), who laments the one wild oat of his callow youth long gone, Diamond Sal. It would have been cool to have a Diamond Sal show up in this story, but Gabby's daughter Queenie (Sally Payne) turns up instead. With a gig as a singer at the Bonanza Saloon, she belts out a fun tune with 'Ya Shoulda Been Pete', and later does a respectable version of 'Don't Gamble With Romance'. It was interesting to see a female singer handling some of the musical chores in between Roy's songs, as more often it would be the Sons of the Pioneers.

Once in Tombstone, Roy's character is mistaken for a hired gun the town boss has brought in to help take over control of the Carson silver mine. The Carson 'gang' is run by seventy seven year old Granny Carson (Zeffie Tilbury), but it doesn't take long for Roy to figure out that Mayor Luke Keeler (Addison Richards) and the sheriff in his pocket (Hal Taliaferro) are the real bad guys. Another B Western veteran, Jay Novello, is also on hand in an interesting role with two identities who sides with the villains.

Roy and Gabby almost make it look too easy as they take down the baddies in short order, including Shotgun Cassidy (Harry Woods), the outlaw who's identity Roy assumed at the start of the picture. Roy takes a bullet in the course of the story, and you know that doesn't happen too often. When he's not busting up the bad guys, Roy handles a couple of tunes as well, starting out the picture with 'Ridin' on a Rocky Road', and joining in with Gabby later on 'Sons of the Western Soil'. All in all a fun picture as Roy and Gabby tame Tombstone without too much trouble.

"Sheriff Of Tombstone" was originally released back in 1941.

Anyway - As the story goes - A hired gun is en route to Tombstone under the pretext of cleaning up lawlessness. In reality, the mayor has hired him with the goal of taking over the town. Roy is mistakenly thought to be the gunman after he and Gabby arrive in town. The duo are about to expose the mayor's plan when the real gunman appears on the scene.