JohnHowardReid An unusually complicated story-line finds Rogers, Hatton and Acuff joining the Arizona Border Patrol after a stint in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. The territory is being terrorized by a gang of bandits led by a mysterious "Arizona Jack" who hides out across the Mexican border between raids. What seems at first a standard goodies-versus-outlaws chase (compounded by vengeance, though this aspect is soft-pedalled) is made more complex by the runaway daughter of a rich mine-owner who wants to marry her father's manager. Unfortunately for her, the manager...It can be seen that Rogers' role is less central than in most of his vehicles. Indeed it's the girl who has the main part - and that makes this a very unusual "B" western indeed. Rogers still finds time to sing a couple of pleasant songs plus a chorus or two of "Johnny Comes Marching Home", but all the numbers are staged in odd circumstances. What's more the musical interludes are not built up as ends in themselves, but are treated in a much more realistic and casual fashion. Compared to their obligatory central staging in his later westerns, here the songs are almost peripheral to the main action. Rogers' personality is more likably subdued here too, allowing the other players to make much more of an impression. Of course if you're a rabid Rogers fan, you may find the amount of screen time devoted to the other characters - Miss Hart, Pawley, Meeker, Miss Sebastian, even Rockwell - unappealing, though I really enjoyed their performances. (It was also good to see George Chesebro up to his usual villainy. Glenn Strange can easily be recognized as one of the bandits, while the more eagle-eyed will pick George Montgomery in a triple-threat role as a rough-rider, a bandit and a double for Rogers).Kane omits this picture from his filmography, though it's certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The director makes good use of his locations, his players and a surprisingly expansive budget. There's more than enough chase, fisticuffs and shoot-out action to satisfy the fans, though the final rounding-up of the bandits is disappointingly short.OTHER VIEWS: Herbert J. Yates had the bright idea of re-naming Miss Roberts as Mary Hart so that he could bill "Rogers and Hart" as the new sweethearts of the west. To this end, he probably ordered his scripters and directors to focus more - or at least just as much - as on Leonard Slye! (Slye didn't actually change his name to Roy Rogers until 1942).

Robert J. Maxwell If you don't expect much in the way or originality, you may enjoy this lively inexpensive Western. Roy Rogers and two buddies are discharged from Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and join the Border Patrol. Intrigues, fist fights, shoot outs, and romance follow. The girl in the case, Mary Hart, is attractive enough but neither here nor there.Roy Rogers gets to sing dumb songs with lyrics like "the stars never fail while I'm ridin' on the trail." But he has a pleasant voice and he actually plays the guitar he's holding, and doesn't just use it as a prop.I always liked these cheap Westerns as a kid -- Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Wild Bill Elliot. The heroes were always so polite, well-dressed, honest, and they never threw a punch or drew their guns without just cause. Rogers, in particular, was a favorite because he was younger than some and, I thought, handsome enough to be envied.When I grew up, I watched his TV program once in a while and he was STILL a nice guy. His chat buddy asked him why he'd had Trigger stuffed. "What was I going' to do?", replied Rogers, still the candid man of yesteryear, "put him in the ground and let the bugs eat him?" The former Leonard Slye came west with an Okie family during the depression, had had a hard youth, and was lucky enough to become a movie star instead of a peach picker. Good for him.

bkoganbing It's the end of the Spanish American War and newly mustered out Rough Riders Roy Rogers, Raymond Hatton, and Eddie Acuff get a letter from none other than their former commanding officer and now Vice Presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt recommending them for jobs as border patrolmen in Arizona. Of course with that kind of pull, you know they get hired. Two of their assignments get juxtaposed in Rough Rider's Roundup. The first is to stop and detain a young woman played by Lynne Roberts, but the second is to find out just who is this bandit Arizona Jack who is operating on both sides of the border. When Eddie Acuff is killed by him, the mission gets real personal.Roy sings a song and gets to even yodel in this one and of all the singing cowboys, Rogers was the best yodeler of the bunch. He even gets to clock someone who at the very beginning downgrades the Rough Riders and calls TR an Eastern poser when he tells the guys he's voting for a real westerner in William Jennings Bryan. That's not something you say to a Rough Rider.Funny when that was going and when the guys are hired as border patrolmen without question on TR's word, I was thinking of another Republic picture, War Of The Wildcats where former Rough Rider John Wayne got an oil lease simply because of where he served in the Spanish American War. Rough Riders could do no wrong in those years.For Roy's fans and other aficionados of the B western.

classicsoncall It's 1900, and Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders have returned from Cuba. Roy Rogers and friends Rusty Coburn (Eddie Acuff) and Tommy Ward (Ray Hatton) seek work as border patrol agents, with the personal recommendation of Roosevelt himself. The border patrol captain is willing to take them on, especially since outlaw Arizona Jack is marauding the border passes and seeking refuge in Mexico. Adding drama to the plot is the presence of Dorothy Blair (Mary Hart), as the daughter of the owner of the Amco Mining Company. Rogers has orders to detain her, but when a fight breaks out in the cantina she escapes on a Mexican stagecoach, only to be captured by the bandits.Roy Rogers has the uncanny ability to walk into any situation, no matter how grim, and pick up a guitar to sing a song. This happens twice in Roundup - first in the unfriendly environs of the local cantina, and then again when captured and secured in Arizona Jack's bandit hideout; it's not very believable given the situation.Be attentive for a continuity goof in a chase scene in the second half of the film; as Arizona Jack's gang pursues Roy and Rusty on horseback, the good guys string a rope across their path to knock the first two riders off their horses. But as the bandits get up to dust themselves off, the rope is back in place again."Rough Riders Roundup" moves along at a brisk fifty eight minute pace, and as mentioned, has the obligatory fisticuffs, chase scenes and gunfights expected in a "B" western. One overlooked detail though - Roy appears to ride his trusty palomino Trigger in the film, however Trigger is not top billed as "The Smartest Horse in the Movies" in this flick. I assume he fired his agent before the next picture!