Along the Navajo Trail | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frank McDonald |
Written by |
William Colt MacDonald (novel) Gerald Geraghty |
Produced by | Edward J. White |
Starring |
Roy Rogers Gabby Hayes Dale Evans Estelita Rodriguez |
Cinematography | William Bradford |
Edited by | Tony Martinelli |
Music by | Mort Glickman |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release date | September 15, 1945 |
Running time | 66 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Along the Navajo Trail is a 1945 American Western film directed by Frank McDonald and starring Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and Dale Evans. The film's story was based on a William Colt MacDonald novel. The film marked the debut of the Cuban actress Estelita Rodriguez, who Republic Pictures then began to build up into a star. Its title song is Along the Navajo Trail, an instrumental version of which appears with the opening credits, with a brief vocal version during the last twenty seconds of the film. The first few bars of the song are used as background music in several chase scenes. [1]
The film was part of the long-running series of Roy Rogers films produced by the studio. [2]
Deputy U.S. Marshal Roy Rogers poses as a wandering poet, finding and defeating a group of bad guys who, for reasons they keep to themselves, are trying to oust a girl and her father from their ranch. [3] As the plot develops, it is revealed that they want the ranch so they can sell it to a company that wants to run an oil pipeline through a mountain pass at the edge of the property.
Roy comes to the town of Padre Wells, leaving his guns at his squatter's camp on the Ladder-A ranch. He gets into a fistfight with Rusty Channing, a cowboy from the Bridle-Bit ranch who is harassing a gypsy girl and her boyfriend. After defeating Channing, Bridle-Bit owner J. Richard Bentley advises Roy to bring his guns the next time he shows up. Roy returns to the Ladder-A, where he forms a relationship with the owner's daughter Lorrie Alastair, and moves into the bunkhouse. Lorrie's father has been shot in the arm by the bad guys who are after his ranch. A range war ensues, with Roy, the Ladder-A group and the gypsies on one side, and the Bridle-Bit gang and bad guys from the Santa Fe Oil Company on the other. The gypsy girl briefly has a crush on Roy, but his heart belongs to Lorrie. Ultimately there is a showdown at the Bridle-Bit, with the bad guys having the upper hand until the gypsies race in and save the day. Roy and Lorrie openly fall in love and live happily ever after. [4]
0:58 YouTube version of the 0:66 film