I was VERY surprised when I found this copy of "Sunset in the West" on YouTube. This is because unlike most Roy Rogers films you find, this one is the original length and hasn't been pared down to television time slot length. In addition, I was impressed how nice the color was in the film, as it was filmed in TruColor....a process where you RARELY ever get true full color. Like many of the two-color film processes, it was much cheaper than standard Technicolor but also tended to look very muddy....with most colors being more orangy and greenish than anything else. This is because when the film degrades over time, these colors tend to saturate the print. But here in "Sunset in the West" the colors are nearly normal...with lots of blues, which you rarely find in anything but the most pristine TruColor prints.
When the story begins, the sheriff (Will Wright) is out trying to stop gun runners--with little success. In the next scene, Roy and his men are waiting with cattle for the train. Inexplicably, the train barrels right past and doesn't stop to pick up these cows bound for market. Roy chases the train with his horse....and when he boards, someone punches him and tosses him off!! Clearly, nice folks are NOT running this train! Could they be the gun runners?! What do you think?!?! And, how will Roy and the sheriff address this problem?
Like most of Roy Rogers' later films, he doesn't have a sidekick per se. For some of these duties, Gordon Jones is on hand...and for me, this is a huge deficit in any of these later pictures. Jones wasn't completely terrible...but he wasn't an adequate replacement for the likes of Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine. He seemed less of an asset and more of a blundering idiot! Oh, well....at least this film featured a cute Bloodhound as another one of the 'sidekicks'!
So is it any good? Yes. Despite Jones, the plot is unusual and the story rather exciting and well written. Not a great film....but a very good one. Plus, it has a cute doggy....a plus for me!
By the way, Will Wright is very good in the film. However, I was shocked when I checked and saw he was 56 when he made this movie (my age, by the way). He looked at least 70. I guess folks got older sooner back in the good old days....or, possibly, I look that bad and just don't realize it!
When the story begins, the sheriff (Will Wright) is out trying to stop gun runners--with little success. In the next scene, Roy and his men are waiting with cattle for the train. Inexplicably, the train barrels right past and doesn't stop to pick up these cows bound for market. Roy chases the train with his horse....and when he boards, someone punches him and tosses him off!! Clearly, nice folks are NOT running this train! Could they be the gun runners?! What do you think?!?! And, how will Roy and the sheriff address this problem?
Like most of Roy Rogers' later films, he doesn't have a sidekick per se. For some of these duties, Gordon Jones is on hand...and for me, this is a huge deficit in any of these later pictures. Jones wasn't completely terrible...but he wasn't an adequate replacement for the likes of Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine. He seemed less of an asset and more of a blundering idiot! Oh, well....at least this film featured a cute Bloodhound as another one of the 'sidekicks'!
So is it any good? Yes. Despite Jones, the plot is unusual and the story rather exciting and well written. Not a great film....but a very good one. Plus, it has a cute doggy....a plus for me!
By the way, Will Wright is very good in the film. However, I was shocked when I checked and saw he was 56 when he made this movie (my age, by the way). He looked at least 70. I guess folks got older sooner back in the good old days....or, possibly, I look that bad and just don't realize it!