Grand Canyon Trail

Grand Canyon Trail is another of the Trucolor Roy Rogers films that has shown up on DVD from a black and white print. That does not take away from the movie since black and white was so common at the time anyway.

Roy appeared kind of dumb in this one, and so did everyone else. It was customary for the lead cowboy to be able to figure out the crooks' plan and identify the leader. Roy took forever to suspect Regan, and it was only after other characters helped him that he ever learned anything. Instead of standing on guard duty and being prodded by Cookie, Foy, and the Riders of the Purple Sage, he should have already scouted around looking for clues. As much interaction as there was between the cowboys and Regan's crew someone should have suspected something sooner. There was no battle of wits. Carol Martin never figured out who wanted to hurt her and who wanted to save her until almost the end of the movie despite how obvious it was.

Roy got in a lot of fist fights in this one. More than once he got clobbered over the head and knocked out. Andy Devine bounced people around with his stomach. The sound effect of a kettle drum would have been perfect if not for the fact that the movie was not a vehicle for slapstick comedy.

The Hangman Hotel was an abandoned old building that provided an opportunity for plenty of haunted house stick comedy. There were scenes of characters chasing from one room to the other with fights throughout the building and crossed paths between the good guys and bad guys. Seeing Andy Devine scream once is funny, but there can be too much of a good thing. The hotel was critical to the story as it was the site where a murder victim was discovered, but the hotel was over-used.

Seeing Robert Livingston go from the leader of the Three Mesquiteers to playing a villain is disheartening. Above all he was an actor who played the part of Regan perfectly. Watching past heroes playing villains or small roles always comes across as sad because few of them ever went back to the glory of their previous films.

Overall the story was good, but it I think the characters could have been developed a little better. Not a bad movie, Grand Canyon Trail is a lull in the Roy Rogers series despite having a great cast and, for some, Trucolor.