It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Song of Nevada (1944) – Musical #777

Studio:
Republic Pictures

Director:
Joseph Kane

Starring:
Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans, Thurston Hall, John Eldridge, Mary Lee, Lloyd Corrigan, Forrest Taylor, George Meeker, Emmett Vogan, LeRoy Mason, Bob Nolan, Si Jenks (uncredited), Ruth Roman (uncredited)
Themselves: Sons of the Pioneers

Plot:
Wealthy John Barrabee (Hall) is discouraged that his daughter Jennie (Evans) has “left the prairie for Park Avenue,” especially now that she’s engaged to snooty Rollo Bingham (Eldridge). Barrabee leaves New York City to head back out west to Nevada. During the flight, the plane makes an emergency landing and Barrabee wanders off, meeting Roy Rogers (himself) and his friends. He’s having such a good time with Roy, that Barrabee misses his flight which crashes; leading the newspapers and Jennie to believe that he’s dead. As soon as his death is announced Rollo begins liquidating Barrabee’s estate. Barrabee and Roy hatch a plan to keep Jennie out west where she belongs.

Trivia:
• Trigger receives second billing as “The Smartest Horse in the Movies.”
• The original running time of the film was 75-minutes. It was cut to 54-minutes for television.
• This was the last Roy Rogers film that Joseph Kane directed.

Highlights:
• Thurston Hall’s character

Notable Songs:
• “It’s Love, Love, Love” performed by Dale Evans
• “New Moon Over Nevada” performed by the Sons of the Pioneers
• “Harum Scarum Baron of the Old Harmonium” performed by Mary Lee
• “What Are We Going to Do?” performed by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
• “Her Golden Hair was Hanging Down Her Back” performed by Dale Evans

My review:
I have started to really enjoy westerns set in contemporary time, and SONG OF NEVADA (1944) is no exception.

In this film, the audience meets Dale Evans before they meet Roy Rogers and the story begins in New York City and ends in the west.

Jennie Barrabee (Evans) is trying to live up to New York society and now is going by Joan. She’s engaged to stuffy Rollo Bingham (Eldredge), and her wealthy father, John Barrabee (Hall) is not pleased. On the night her engagement is announced, Jennie calls her father “an insufferable bore.” Disheartened that his daughter has “left the prairie for Park Avenue,” Barrabee gets on the first flight for Nevada. On the way to Nevada, the plane makes an emergency landing and Barrabee wanders off and misses when the flight takes off, because he meets cowboy Roy Rogers (Rogers) and begins enjoying himself in the prairie. Barrabee doesn’t realize that the plane he was supposed to be on and everyone believes he’s dead.

As Rollo Bingham helps Jennie liquidate her father’s assets, Barrabee decides to remain “dead” and asks Roy Rogers to investigate Rollo and bring Jennie back to her senses.

The cast in this is so much fun, and I found this film to be incredibly enjoyable. It’s fun to see Dale Evans start off as a city snob and John Eldredge always plays a great slim. To me, the real highlight here was Thurston Hall, who has the west in his blood, and it’s fun to see Hall and Roy Rogers pal around.

Roy Rogers is of course wonderful and he has the opportunity to sing several fun songs. There is also an incredible dance number with lasso performers.

Lloyd Corrigan’s role seems all too brief, and it’s interesting to see Mary Lee grown up, after I’m used to seeing her as a child.

I thankfully was able to watch a 72-minute version of this film, after learning the hard way previously that many of Roy Rogers’s movies are shortened to just over an hour (meaning many of the songs are removed).

What I also liked about this film is that the bad guy is a fortune hunter, rather than a prairie racketeer.

I could go on and on, but I simply just had a wonderful time watching this. Just a splendid time.

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