Heart of the Rockies (1951) (DVD)

Roy plays an engineer overseeing the construction of a new highway. Assisting him are former juvenile delinquents paying their debt to society. Crusty old rancher Andrew Willard publicly opposes the highway as an eyesore, but secretly does not want the fact that he acquired his property illegally discovered. Willard hires rustlers to sabotage the road project and pin it on the reform school boys. Roy and Trigger leap into action to clear the boys' names and expose Willard as a crooked land baron.

Heart of the Rockies was one of the last movies Roy Rogers made before he made the leap to television with The Roy Rogers Show, which premiered on NBC a few months after the film's release. Years as it is into his film career (he started making movies for Warner Brothers back in 1937) this was an attempt to change the formula by giving Roy a group of junior helpers from the wrong side of the tracks, his own "Dead End Kids." However, none of the young actors featured ever appeared on screen with Roy again. Roy's wife Dale Evans was still home with their children, so Penny Edwards made her sixth appearance as Roy's leading lady (Dale would return from her leave for the NBC TV series.) Gordon Jones, best known as Mike the Cop on The Abbott and Costello Show (1952-1954) provides comic relief. Villain Ralph Morgan is the brother of Frank Morgan of Wizard of Oz fame. Director William Witney made what many consider to be Republic's best serials, including Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940), Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Spy Smasher (1942), and The Crimson Ghost (1946).

BONUS: Junior Bronc Busters (1952): This Castle Films short shows young boys and girls competing in riding, roping and bulldogging contests at a junior rodeo. "The rodeo - where a man will wrestle a half a ton of demented roast beef just to show what's he made of!" proclaims the breathless narrator.

• western