Review of Sons of the Pioneers

Despite the title, the Sons of the Pioneers singing group are not featured any more than in most Roy Rogers films, and , no doubt, some of their songs have been deleted in this truncated version that I saw........Rogersville is in crisis. Many of the cattle of surrounding ranches have been sick or dying recently. Veterinarian Thompson says they are suffering from foot and mouth disease(FMD)(which, historically, had not been recorded in the US since 1929). Thus, those individuals in an infected herd not yet showing symptoms were slaughtered, as well as the sick ones, to prevent spread of the disease.........Roy Rogers, grandson of the founder of Rogersville, and son of a famous sheriff of Rogersville, has been living in NY state since he was 10 years old, having spent his early youth in Rogersville. Presently, he is a research entomologist. The people of Rogersville are fed up with their cattle woes and barns being burned. New rancher Louise Harper(Maris Wrixon) is leading the call to replace veteran sheriff Gabby Whitaker(Gabby Hayes). At the nominating meeting, Louise nominates Frank Bennett((Bradley Page), without experience of being sheriff. Again, he has been in Rogersville only one year, running a chemical plant. On the other hand, Gabby talks up the virtues of sending for Roy Rogers, who also has no experience as a sheriff, but is the son of one. It's a classic Gabby speech. .......Come election day, Roy wins, having been convinced to drop his insect studies and return West with Gabby and Pat Brady, who had made a pilgrimage to his home to plead their case........Roy drove his car, by himself, toward Rogersville. Near his goal, he was accosted by 4 horsemen who blocked his path on the narrow road. They roughed him up, pushed him down, and stole his car, laughing that he would be a pushover as sheriff. They left one to take care of their horses, but Roy tricked him, knocking him out, and stealing one of the horses. He sped along a short cut and, from a ledge, jumped onto the back of the car! He siphoned the gas out of the tank onto the road, keeping a small container of it for himself, then jumped off the car and hid when he heard the engine sputter. The 3 men abandoned the car, and began walking toward town, as Roy regained possession of the car......... After taking a look at some of the sick cattle, Roy isn't convinced that the cattle are dying from FMD(presumably, their symptoms didn't add up to the expected symptoms of FMD, despite what the vet said). Roy suspected that the vet was working with someone to diffuse the actual cause of their maladies. Roy also looked at some dead cow tissue through his high power microscope, and didn't see any sign of FMD(But, he should not have seen the agent of FMD, even if present, because it is a virus!). He guesses that the cattle are suffering from an introduced poison. He suspects Bennett is the culprit, so goes snooping in his chemical laboratory, as do Gabby and Pat. Bennett gets wise to this, and accosts them. Nonetheless, Roy escapes and claims he found the poison, without testing it on a couple of cows, and without knowing the typical symptoms of such poisoning!........Incidentally, when Gabby and Pat first found Roy, in his laboratory in NY, he was peering through his high power microscope at a 'Rocky Mountain Hicky Bug', which I suspect was his fancy name for the common bed bug. If so, he should have been looking through a dissecting microscope, not a high power compound scope.........Anyway, of course, the film ends with a shootout. and the arrest of Frank Bennett.........Gabby has an unusually prominent role during much of the film........In contrast to many of his films, there is only a bare hint of a romantic relationship developed between Roy and the leading lady, at the end.