User Reviews

"The town of Granville has been shaken by a series of fur pelt thefts from a trading post, and a murder".

Only a B Western of the Thirties and Forties could have a synopsis like that and have a title like "Romance on the Range". But you know what? There actually is a hint of romance in this story, and you'll never guess who's involved. Roy Rogers' future TV sidekick Pat Brady has a more prominent role here than in most early flicks with Roy and Bob Nolan's Sons of the Pioneers. As a member of the Lonely Hearts Club, Pat is 'half-engaged' to a gal named Sally (Sally Payne) back East, where she works for a society girl named Joan Stuart (Linda Hayes). Miss Stuart is the absentee owner of the Arrowhead Ranch where Roy is foreman, and with income from the ranch dwindling due to trapline raiders stealing fur pelts on her property, she decides to personally investigate while going undercover with Sally.

This film shakes out as one of the more fun outings by Roy and his regular cast of good guys and villains. The bad guy bunch includes Edward Pawley as Jerome Banning, Glenn Strange as henchman Stokes, Roy Barcroft as henchie Pete, and Harry Woods as thug Steve. Between Pat Brady and Gabby Hayes the humor flows freely, with Gabby taking a page out of Leo Gorcey's book of malapropisms with his quote in my summary line above. His attempt to scare the gals with weird howling outside their sleeping quarters backfires big time, and when he's left to guard one of the bad guys, he gets tricked into getting stuck in a 'South African slobberjack'. To understand that one, you'll have to catch the picture.

When all is said and done, there's no doubt Roy will get the drop on the bad guys, as well as learning the identity of the rich society gal who went undercover to help him smoke out the fur raiders. With a sprinkling of tunes by Nolan's Pioneers, this is one of the more entertaining of Roy's early Forties flicks, and deserves a look for all the diverse elements in the story.

The film begins with a lady going west to investigate why her ranch is failing. It seems she doesn't trust the foreman with his many excuses. So, she goes incognito--hoping that if no one knows who she really is that she can find out the truth. What she doesn't know is that her foreman is Roy Rogers--and EVERYBODY knows Roy is as honest as the day is long. But, he doesn't know who she is and it remains this way for a while. During this time, the real culprit tries to frame Roy--and the lady knows that Roy is innocent and that the other man is evil. But the sheriff doesn't know that Roy is a hero and she and Roy and the gang need to work fast to prevent Roy from going to jail.

Overall, this is yet another agreeable Roy Rogers B-movie. While it has lots of singing, which I usually hate, I did LOVE the song "Oh, Wonderful World". It's very funny--just be sure to listen to the lyrics!

Along with Nevada City, thus far, my favorite Roy Rogers film. This one has the added bonus of a choice of the uncut original available at YouTube.......Here, we are dealing with the theft of valuable trapped animals, rather than the usual cows or gold or money. Roy is foreman of the Arrowhead ranch, and Gabby Hayes is the cook. Since the new owner of the ranch: Joan Stuart(Linda Hayes), lives in NYC, and has never been to the ranch, Jerome Banning(Ed Farley) has been appointed manager of the ranch. Because the number of pelts sold in recent months has been seriously declining, Joan is worried that the ranch may go bankrupt, despite assurances by Banning. Instead of sending a spy, Joan decides to be that spy, incognito, of course. She takes her maid, Sally(Sally Payne), along, who serendipitously has a correspondence boyfriend at that ranch! It takes a while to figure out that Banning is the mastermind behind the disappearing trapped animals, while Glenn Strange, as Stokes, is his field boss.......Roy is especially peeved that one of his men was shot dead in the field, presumably by the fur animal thieves. This instigates him to look seriously for the thieves. He and the Sons of the Pioneers hands catch up with a rare truck on a ranch road. The driver claims he has no furs. When Roy goes to take a look, the driver bolts, leaving his partner behind, with Gabby as his guard. The man cleverly shows Gabby a trick with a small hollow cylinder of wood, having Gabby put a finger in each end of the cylinder, then told to pull it out. He can't. The man escapes. But, Gabby uses this trick to later break the gang out of jail, using it on the gullible sheriff, who comes over so Gabby can show him how to get it off. They take his ring of keys and slug him. This happened just in the knick of time, as there was an angry mob outside itching to lynch them. So, how did Roy and gang manage to be blamed for the killing of a ranch hand, and theft of fur animals? Well, evil Banning got the idea of getting rid of Roy by complaining about the 2 women staying at the ranch, saying this was not a dude ranch. Roy got upset and punched Banning, causing Banning to fire Roy. The other ranch hands quit in response. Gabby complained that it just showed that women are born troublemakers.The dispossessed, including the women, decided to take up temporary residence in a cabin on the property. A man comes galloping up and tells them he heard 2 men talking about depositing some furs in a place Roy knew about. The rider then galloped on. Roy and the others rode to this place, and there was indeed a pile of pelts there. Unfortunately, the sheriff and posse happened to come by soon after, and assumed they were the trapped animal thieves. Clever thieves! .......As the men and women were cleaning up the cabin, they sang a catchy tune "Sing as You Work". Other songs that I especially liked were "Rocky Mountain Lullaby" and "O-o-oh, Wonderful World". In general, the songs were more memorable than in most Rogers films........As usual, Gabby took the spotlight when he was on camera. He decided to have some fun at the expense of the 2 city girls. So, just before bedtime, he told them about a variety of fearsome creatures that come out at night. A little later, we find him crawling around, dressed in furs, making a scary sounding noise, frightening the women to death. Vert funny! He wasn't comfortable with women around. For one thing, they usually wanted to push him aside and do the cooking. He almost quit several times on account of the women.........See it at YouTube.