Young Buffalo Bill (1940)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

How sad is this?

Fantastic!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Roy Rogers is in the title role of Young Buffalo Bill and I doubt that for all of William F. Cody's accomplishments that he sang as pretty as Roy did. Roy and sidekick Gabby Hayes, former army bugler are in New Mexico helping the government survey the land. That's an issue of deep concern to Hugh Sothern owner of a large ranch from the days his family got a Spanish land grant from the King of Spain 200 years earlier. It's a big concern to Sothern's granddaughter Pauline Moore for whom Young Buffalo Bill has taken an interest in.Problems arise when the surveyor, young Steve Pendleton gets himself in some gambling debts and fakes the survey depriving Sothern of a section that contains a lost mine that the Comanches know about. So does Trevor Bardette, half brother to their chief, Chief Thundercloud. All this intrigue leads up to a mighty fine shootout at the hacienda. That's the climax of the film.Young Buffalo Bill is another in the long tradition of Hollywood B westerns where a real frontier legend is taken and a wholly fictitious story is written for them. As for Buffalo Bill the closest anyone ever got to telling his story for real is Buffalo Bill And The Indians with Paul Newman. At least this one doesn't pretend to be ground in reality.And Roy does sing nice with a couple of cowboy ballads, something William F. Cody never did I'm sure.

You would think that a film with the title "Young Buffalo Bill" would have something to do with it's title character hunting bison on the open plains, or at least doing some scout work and tracking for the Army like the historical Bill Cody did. Instead, this picture's Buffalo Bill (Roy Rogers) teams with sidekick Gabby Hayes to do survey work in the New Mexico Territory. Their assignment is to verify the boundaries of some old Spanish land grants while assigned to Colonel Joseph Calhoun's (Wade Boteler) cavalry unit.All Roy Rogers films have a villain or two to deal with, and this time it's a pair of half brothers, Comanche Chief Akuna (Chief Thundercloud) and Emilio Montez (Trevoe Bardette). Akuna knows the location of a secret gold mine located in the northern section of Don Regas' (Hugh Sothern) huge rancho, so Montez uses blackmail to force the Colonel's son to tamper with the survey of the Regas spread. Roy, that is, Buffalo Bill and Gabby ride to the rescue amid an Indian attack to save the day for Don Regas and his pretty daughter Tonia (Pauline Moore) with the Cavalry joining in to lend a hand.Apparently, Republic Pictures found a winning formula with it's star Roy Rogers portraying historical characters because they produced quite a few of them. 1938's "Billy the Kid Returns" got the ball rolling followed by "Days of Jesse James" a year later. Then there was "Young Bill Hickok" in 1940, and another take on the famous outlaw in "Jesse James at Bay" in 1941. Like you have here, these other pictures had just the most tenuous connection to the real life characters, but they sounded cool, and gave matinée fans another reason to catch Roy and Gabby in action.

The titular character (Roy Rogers) and Gabby Hayes assist a military land survey through dangerous Indian territory. When the young surveyor in charge is secretly blackmailed into cheating a Spanish landowner out of a large portion of his property, Roy and Gabby immediately suspect something's up and vow to get to the bottom of the situation, despite an impending Indian uprising.Like most Republic B-westerns and other adventures of the late thirties and early forties, this has great atmosphere, striking visuals, and well-staged action sequences. However, this time around the story is a bit typical. Still, the cinematography, direction by the great Joseph Kane, and the performances by Rogers and Hayes make this worth recommending to fans of the genre.Leading lady Pauline Moore is quite lovely too.

Roy Rogers stars as "Young Buffalo Bill" Cody, surveying the New Mexico landscape, fighting off Comanche Indians, and defending a diamond mine. And, wouldn't you know it? - "Buffalo Bill" had a sidekick named "Gabby", played by George "Gabby" Hayes! Pauline Moore (as Tonia) adds some feminine charm to the running time.The film's highlight is its generous location footage. Not New Mexico, of course, but California; and there are specific sequences are from rocky Vasquez Park, according to IMDb data. Otherwise, this is a very rushed looking western. Produced off of the Roy Rogers Republic western-production-line, with the expected quality control. Mr. Rogers' musical interludes are below par. The story is unimaginative, and you have to wonder about the sobriety of certain cast and crew… ** Young Buffalo Bill (1940) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Pauline Moore