Roy Rogers in TruColor and Uncut (2 Viewers)

[John Sparks]

Undercrank Productions will bring to BLu-ray new 2K restorations of two early Tom Mix westerns: Sky High (1922) and The Big Diamond Robbery (1929). The double-feature release is scheduled to arrive on the market on July 11.

 

[RBailey]

Undercrank Productions will bring to BLu-ray new 2K restorations of two early Tom Mix westerns: Sky High (1922) and The Big Diamond Robbery (1929). The double-feature release is scheduled to arrive on the market on July 11.

These were recently shown on TCM and the picture quality was incredible. Both very entertaining films.

 

[ponset]

 

[EstherD]

Here's one for regular stars with a claim of 800 life stories. I guess they count all the performers mentioned in each issue.
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More with Roy. Stories about his family plus picture features on individual episodes of his TV series.
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Player Index on the right. Are there 500 listed in this example? I don't feel like counting. Click to enlarge. Pictorial for Wild Bill Elliott's "Rebel City" on the left.
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Contents.
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Highlighting an episode of "The Roy Rogers Show"
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Above examples may not be from the same issue.

This one drops the 500.
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GritTV has another over the air digital station out there somewhere concentrating on western movies and TV shows. I can't find any trace of what cities it's on in, yet. But the schedule is up on the regular GritTV website.

It's called GRITXtra. The schedule includes the SFM Entertainment shows, "The Californians", "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp", "The Adventures of Jim Bowie" and even "The Real McCoys".

The GRITXtra schedule shows 20 episodes of "The Roy Rogers Show" on Mondays. So, when/if this station shows up, you could watch or record them all in 5 or six weeks. I don't know if they will have all 105 episodes to show.

Many of the episodes of "The Roy Rogers Show", on Tubi and YouTube seem to be full length. I don't know if they have all 105 episodes either.

"MACKINTOSH and T.J." can be watched for free on Tubi.

I very much enjoyed reading the magazine article and biography! Thank you for posting it. What a fun breakdown of the episode! I'm savoring it carefully, as I don't imagine I'll ever get my hands on a magazine like that. Loved the funny story about Roy's shirt fabric for the series!

 

[SuperClark]

Roy Rogers had a drink named after him.he didn't drink alcohol ever.I have tried it and its tasty,You can make your own easily.Simply fill a tall glass with ice,pour coke over it,add some grenadine syrup and top off with a maraschino cherry.

I also have had sarsaparilla soft drink.I bought a 6 pack/sioux city brand,Its similar to root beer but with more bite. Here is Bob Hope talking tough after he orders a fruit drink in a rough bar.

 

[ponset]

Not sure who the woman is.

1951 BING CROSBY radio show with Hoppy and Dinah Shore.

 

[Bob Gu]

The lady pictured above with Hoppy and Bing is, singer, Peggy Lee, from, according to the internet, a Bing radio show from Dec. 7, 1949.

 

[SuperClark]

Bob gets some help against the bad guys from famous western stars.Even Der Bingle.Starts at 219.I recently revisited Son of Paleface with Roy its on youtube. I read Bob Hope wanted Maureen O 'Hara as is female lead but Jane was fine.

 

[RBailey]

Bob gets some help against the bad guys from famous western stars.Even Der Bingle.Statrs at 219.I recently revisited Son of Paleface with Roy its on youtube. I read Bob Hope wanted Maureen O 'Hara as is female lead but Jane was fine.

I saw ALIAS JESSE JAMES at a packed Saturday matinee and the crowd response to each cameo was huge. A cherished memory of my moviegoing days of the fifties and sixties.

 

[Bob Gu]

Roy and Bing.

My memory of first seeing "Alias Jesse James" was on "The ABC Sunday Night Movie".

I think I was aware of the western star cameos ahead of the broadcast. The newspaper must have mentioned them or maybe the stars were shown in TV commercials, for the movie.

I talked about "The Paleface", "Son of Paleface", and "Alias Jesse James" in Posts #346 and #352 on page 18 of this thread.

Kino released, on Blu-Ray, "Alias Jesse James" in 2021, "The Paleface" in 2020, and "Son of Paleface" in 2017. "Son of Paleface" was also released on DVD, by Kino.

 

[ponset]

Thanks Bob was identifying Peggy Lee.

Bob Hope and Dale Evans.

1984 Photo.

1952 Bob Hope radio show with Roy and Dale.

 

[Bob Gu]

GritTV is showing three Republic westerns this week. First up: Sunday June 4, 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, EST.

RIDE THE MAN DOWN-1952. A 3-color Trucolor, that I have talked about before, in Post #246 on page 13 and in Post #596 on page 30.

RIDE THE MAN DOWN is a 'ranch house western', which means in addition to the usual ridin', ropin', rustlin', and land grabbin', the hero has two women he's interested in.

In this story the hero is, Rod Cameron, ridin' 'for the brand' to help a feisty ranch gal, Ella Raines, keep her ranch from being taken over, by everybody.

Ella Raines.

In the clutches of Forrest Tucker.

Rod's town gal, the elegant Barbara Britton.

On the set.

Bad guy Brian Donlevy and maybe not so bad guy J. Carrol Naish.

I am hoping that Grit will show a new print and that RIDE THE MAN DOWN has been restored by Paramount, or even earlier by Spelling, as one of the six hundred Republic movies that are being restored.

Most of the YouTube uploads of RIDE THE MAN DOWN are from the old NTA/Republic Home Video VHS tape. This print was a little yellow and the night scene at the end it was hard to see what was going on.

I linked a YouTube upload in Post #596 from a different print, the German DVD and the night scene at the end was a good bit clearer.


The second Republic western is, MAN OR GUN-1958, B&W. Stars MacDonald Carey and Audrey Totter.
Tuesday, June 6, 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM, EST.

Carey and Totter.

The story was by Vince Skarstedt, who played a cop on "Highway Patrol".

I have never seen MAN OR GUN, or the third Republic Grit is showing, DUEL AT APACHE WELLS.

DUEL AT APACHE WELLS-1957, B&W. Wed. June 7, 1:30 AM to 3:00 AM, EST.

Anna Maria Alberghetti and Ben Cooper. I don't remember seeing Ben Cooper as a lead before.

Anna Maria and Ben were together in another Republic, THE LAST COMMAND-1955 in 3-color Trucolor.

THE LAST COMMAND was released on Blu-Ray by Kino in 2018.

 

[Bob Gu]

So, RIDE THE MAN DOWN, shown on Grit, was a restored print with nice bright color and sharpness. The night scene at the end was much clearer than in the German DVD and the old VHS NTA release. (But still a little too dark in spots, but you could clearly see the action of the final shootout.)

It's great to finally see RIDE THE MAN DOWN looking so good. I discovered this movie in the early 90s when a local station was showing Republic westerns with Wild Bill Elliott, Forrest Tucker, and Rod Cameron. They showed all the Trucolors with Black and White prints. The station didn't show any Roy Rogers or Gene Autry movies. They showed a few non-westerns Republics in the package, too.

RIDE THE MAN DOWN had a Paramount/Viacom logo at the end. I believe this version of the logo was in use between 2011 and 2019. It's odd that it took so long for this restoration to reach Grit.

Some non-Republic westerns, that were around in the Public Domain show up on Grit with restored prints.
"Kansas Pacific" and "Rage at Dawn" come to mind.

 

[SuperClark]

Hey Roy you got all my fan letters?)

Roy was great at visiting sick kids in hospitals

Roy and Dale with a new pal

Gabby Johnson I mean Hayes

I never ate there only heard about it

Howdy folks

 

[Bob Gu]

Watched BULLWHIP-1958 on Grit, with Guy Madison and Rhonda Fleming.

BULLWHIP was a widescreen color by DeLuxe release from Allied Artists. It was made by the same production company that made Guy Madison's "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" TV series. NTA acquired the rights to BULLWHIP and released it in VHS, on the Republic Home Video label. It was a very dark full-screen print, in the kind of pan and scan where if two people were sitting across from each other at a table you only saw the table.

Paramount provided the very nice print shown on Grit and it ends with the same 2011-2019 Paramount/Viacom logo as RIDE THE MAN DOWN. The Grit print was also a pan and scan print, but the pan stayed on the speaker.

This is odd as there are widescreen versions of BULLWHIP on YouTube. There seem to be numerous BULLWHIP DVD releases in Europe.

Widescreen YouTube.





The plot: Guy Madison kills a man in self-defense but Judge Don Beddoe convicts Guy.

Beddoe offers Madison freedom if he marries Rhonda Fleming, to help her gain an inheritance.

After the wedding, Guy is supposed to ride out and never see Fleming again. The Judge hires James Griffith to kill Guy, but is interrupted by Guy's pal, Dan Sheridan. The Judge wants Griffith to finish the job,

Another bad guy, Peter Adams, wants Guy to follow Rhonda Fleming and take over her freight business, as her husband, for Adam's benefit. (Later Adams hires Griffith to keep Guy Madison alive.)

Guy agrees to go in with Adams and the taming of the Rhonda story begins.

Rhonda Fleming and Dan Sheridan.

Hank Worden and Wayne Mallory. Mallory is Guy Madison's real-life brother.

In other countries, BULLWHIP was distributed by United Artists and Paramount.

 

[Bert Greene]

Been so long since I've seen "Bullwhip" (1958), and I can't seem to recollect much about it. Always enjoy character actor James Griffith, who delivered a lot of memorable performances, often with a colorful, offbeat tilt. Seems he never quite got either the latter-day work or recognition that say, Royal Dano or Harry Dean Stanton received. But I felt he merited it.

My blu-ray copy of Via Vision/Imprint's release of "The Catman of Paris" (1946-Rep) arrived, and it includes as an extra that 1991 documentary "The Republic Pictures Story" on it. We get quite a bit of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans in it, both vintage clips and some then-current interview snippets. As a historical overview of the studio, the documentary is rather lacking, with narration that is overly effusive and often strains to fit the footage being shown. But as a breezy clip-fest, it's a total barrel of fun. Especially as it digs pretty deeply into the Republic catalog. In addition to comments from Roy and Dale, as well as Gene Autry, we also get a few other key Republic figures like Ruth Terry, Linda Sterling, Catherine McLeod, director William Witney, among others. Although pretty thorough with the clips, I did think the coverage of Republic fare in the 1950s was a little too sparse. Anyway, I saw this back when it premiered in 1991, and had it on tape for years. Really enjoyed revisiting it.

As for "The Catman of Paris" (1946), just like "The Vampire's Ghost" (1945), when I first saw it thirty or forty years ago, I thought it was a real snoozer. I'm thinking I was disappointed that these Republic forays into horror were too banal and just didn't have the atmospheric trappings I expected from the genre. Yet all these years later, I've found these films much more satisfying in ways, perhaps even because of their relative absence of the usual florid excesses. The way they instead conform to the studio's house-style gives them an interesting individuality. They are not unheralded gems or anything, and remain little more than routine programmers, but in a pleasantly brisk and undemanding way. I'd been pretty wary about getting this "Catman" release, between the steep price-tag and my rather negative memories of the film, but it turned out to be a rather happy purchase after all.

 

[Dan McW]

I also enjoy James Griffith. In one of his TV appearances--I think it's on Cheyenne--he was strutting about in an extremely tight leather outfit that set me to wondering about the character he was playing!

 

[ponset]

 

[Flashgear]

Always great stuff in this thread! Thanks to Bob, Bert, Scott, Dan, Clark and others for wonderful posts here lately!

I saw this on FB, and felt I should share it here...one of my hometown's old theatres (approx. 850 seats, still in existence, but at one time dreadfully turned into twin theatres in 1974, with the balcony separated above)... the Grand Theatre, Calgary Alberta Canada, photographed on the evening of March 12, 1949...during the first run of Howard Hawks' immortal Western Classic Red River, starring John Wayne, Monty Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Harry Carey et al., I have many warm memories of seeing kiddie movies here in my childhood, and later films throughout the 70s and 80s...having a large stage from the era of Vaudeville and Chautauqua, such greats as George Burns, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and others performed there in the teens and '20s...it was only about 3 blocks from our beautiful old train station...someone posted on FB of seeing a Uriah Heap rock concert there in 1972. It is currently undergoing a slow restoration in hopes of returning it to something reminiscent of it's original configuration...as a venue for live concerts and plays, it continues today...

A clipping I took from my hometown newspaper of what was showing at the Grand theatre on Dec. 31, 1958...love it!

The Capitol theatre (opened 1921) was by far the largest and most ornate movie and stage venue in Calgary where only the biggest and most prestigious films were shown, sadly demolished in 1972...

Streetview of the Capitol, showing Around the World in 80 Days, summer 1956...

The much more humble Hitchin' Post theatre in Calgary specialized in Westerns only, double and triple bills...seen here in 1925, showing Jack Hoxie's Two Fisted Jones...but this theatre continued showing Westerns only right up to the end of the '50s...

The Strand Theatre was at one time quite ornate, but by the time I attended Saturday afternoon kiddie matinees in the mid '60s, very run-down and tattered...I remember seeing Jimmy Stewart's Flight of the Phoenix second run here with about 500 screaming kids...

A great premiere at the Strand on Dec. 31, 1958, in a screen shot clipping I took from my hometown Calgary Herald newspaper archive on Google...

Somewhat related, also from FB...a nice color shot of people gathered outside an appliance shop in Calgary on the evening of October 6, 1954 to watch the second-ever evening of television broadcasts of our first TV station CHCT-TV (CBC affiliate)...we didn't get a second station till fall 1960 (our population was approx. 250K), when the embryonic CTV network came along...and people finally had a reason to switch channels!

 

[Bob Gu]

Say Bert, do you know if Via Vision/ Imprint has released or plans to release other Republics?

YouTube: "The Republic Pictures Story".




Randall, I remember my neighborhood theater had a big crack in the ceiling. I would never sit under it. They knocked the theater down. There's a donut shop and an apartment building there now.

Randall, that great color theater picture you posted some years back, in this thread, isn't there anymore. I remembered I had saved it. So, I am reposting it, along with another theater picture that is still back there.