Roy Rogers deserved his title "King of the Cowboys." He was a singing cowboy who could really sing and act. Having started his career with the legendary Sons of the Pioneers, Roy (or Leonard Slye back when) could warble with the best of them and could yodel better than anyone around at the time, since the blue yodeler, Jimmie Rodgers, had passed on. The only rivals he had among the singing cowboys were Tex Ritter and, later, Eddie Dean. Roy has time for just one song in this Civil War horse opera, but he makes the most of it by adding a little romance - beautiful Pauline Moore, a former model, plays the woman who loves two brothers, one of them Roy. The other brother is played by the highly underrated, Milburn Stone, now known to all oater fans as Doc from "Gunsmoke." The conflict of good brother vs. bad brother is well handled by the two lead actors and by the script writers.
One of the highlights of "Colorado" is the appearance of Gabby Hayes, who was always at his best when playing the comical sidekick of Roy Rogers. Unlike so many of the cowboy sidekicks in the low-budget westerns who generally appealed to the kids, Gabby's humor could make adults laugh as well. Roy & Dale (Dale had not yet entered the scene when this film was made in 1940) had a TV show on the Nashville Network during 1980's where they would show one of their old movies and then reminisce about it and life in Hollywood in general. On one show Roy told a story about Gabby which may have been apocryphal, but is still funny. Gabby was visiting with Roy and Dale when he looked out the window and saw a small boy sitting on the porch steps crying. Gabby went out to comfort the little tyke. "What's the matter, Buckaroo?" Gabby inquired. The boy looked up at Gabby. "I can't do what the big boys do," he sobbed. When Gabby heard this, he sat down beside the boy and began to cry too.
The plot is an effective one with Roy, a federal agent, attempting to clean up parts of Colorado of secessionists posing as Union defenders. The Confederate sympathizers are led by Roy's own brother. When most of the Hollywood movies of the period, such as "Gone With the Wind," were promoting Southern interests (many of the early directors & producers had Southern roots), it's refreshing to see a Union slant for a change.
Roy Rogers and Saturday matinée cowboy fans should enjoy "Colorado," one of Roy's early films that isn't shown as much on TV as some of his others, but should be. I saw it recently on the Encore Westerns Channel.
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