Robin Hood of the Pecos (1941)

Before the civil rights revolution post Civil War stories about the ravages the Confederate states had to endure under occupation was a common enough plot line for movies. This all started back in the early days of film with Birth of a Nation, continuing with Gone With the Wind.

You could never make Robin Hood of the Pecos today. Even clean living Roy Rogers shows a tinge of racism here when he meets actor Nick Stewart who refuses to help him because the law is after him. "Do as you're told," says Rogers sternly and Nick Stewart does just that. It's these kind of moments that made black people rightly ticked off at the film industry.

Roy is a former Confederate now operating as a Robin Hood type outlaw, battling the corrupt carpetbagger government as exemplified by Cy Kendall who's busy lining his own pockets with self-imposed tax money and having the Union occupying Army backing him up. He's actually the one who gets the acting honors in this film if honors can be given it.

I'm not even sure fans of the King of the Cowboys would go for this one.