Jack Holt and Roy
The
Trail of Robin Hood
(1950) is about Christmas tree rustlers and how Roy Rogers saves the day with a
dream-team of retired B-western heroes.
The movie is just over an hour long, and
despite the constant fisticuffs and thundering hooves of chases on horseback
that make these westerns chock-full of action but short on character
development, its real charm is in its simplicity. Christmas trees are a benign and cheerful
image of the holiday that has little to do with religion and more with
commerce -- at least in this movie.
Fortunately, there is no story line of feeling pressure over Having
the Best Christmas Ever with the perfect tree, or perfect gifts, or following
exacting annual rituals lest the spell be broken if we forgot to make a certain
dessert. To be sure, there are homes
with perfect-looking trees, but for most of us, it is our less than perfect
trees that have the warmest memories, not with the perfectly matched set of
expensive ornaments, but the homemade ones, or the ones bought so long ago at a
store that no longer exists, that are scratched, beat up, but beloved.
Probably Charlie Brown’s iconic pathetic
tree is the most famous of all.
When I was a child, I used to snatch a
small branch of a pine tree from nearby woods, no more than a foot long, to
bring home to use as a tiny Christmas tree.
I stuck it in an old plastic candle holder with some clay, and decorated
it with paper chains. A construction
paper star on top. It was separate from
the big tree in the living room (for most of my childhood years, an artificial
tree), and rather like a personal-size pizza, it was all mine.
It was my piece of portable Christmas.
So simple, and so much pleasure derived from it. The big tree in the living room was fun, too,
but that was a more complicated project.
Parents and older siblings decided when it would be put up, where it
would go, and would fuss over lights and ornaments, and imperfect branches, and
they were always seemingly always dissatisfied.
The big tree needed constant adjusting by them.
I’d cobbled together a crèche scene as
well, with wood scraps, popsicle sticks and plastic farm animals that were my
toys. It wasn’t that great looking, but since
the Holy Family wasn’t staying at the Holiday Inn, it was probably better than
they were used to.
Lest this become a post about
pathetically crappy homemade Christmas crafts (which I think would be
hysterical if women’s magazines would feature just once, instead of everything
needing to be perfect to create The Best Christmas Ever), let me meander back to
the movie. Its simplicity is its charm
and its imperfections bring a smile.
Even, say, the title, which makes not a whole lot of sense. Robin Hood?
There’s no Robin Hood aspect to the story. It should have been called Christmas Tree Rustlers And How Roy Rogers
Saves The Day With A Dream-Team of Retired B-Western Heroes. But, as usual, nobody asked me.
Roy, Clifton Young and Penny Edwards
Roy Rogers, whom as we noted in this previous post got to a self-branding point in his career where the character he
always played was named Roy Rogers,
is a U.S. Soil Conservation Service agent.
I’m not sure how many soil conservation government workers dress like
cowboys and wear six-shooters, but this is Roy’s movie.
His pal, Jack Holt, who, like Roy is
self-branded to the point of playing former western movie star Jack Holt, is now retired and running a
Christmas tree farm. He intends to
market his trees as cheaply as possible, selling them about 75 cents or 80
cents per tree, so that poor families can afford one and all the little
children will be happy. A noble
sentiment, as is his line, “Kids like that made it possible for me to become a
star.”
We shall pause here that you may blanch over the idea of paying only 75 cents for a Christmas tree. I think the cheapest you can find now is something like $45.
We should take a moment to note that
Trigger, “The Smartest Horse in the West” has second billing only to Roy. Bullet, Roy’s dog, who attacks bad guys in
this movie and chews up their arms and legs, is sadly not credited. We can only fault a lousy agent perhaps, but
as we know, character actors rarely made the big bucks.
Two supporting players who are my
favorites in this movie are Gordon Jones, who plays affable misfit Splinters, a
handyman who is not so handy; and his kid sister, Sis, played by Carol Nugent. She appeared in a bunch of movies and TV
shows right up through the sixties. Her
poker-faced delivery is quite funny, as is the team of brother and sister
playing off each other. Though she’s
just a little kid, she’s the brains, sometimes sounding like a nagging wife to
keep him to task.
She demands, when trouble rears its
head: “Are you going to investigate, or do I have to?”
“Sis!”
“Don’t be afraid, Splinters, I’m here.” He's this big mountain of a guy and she's something like four feet tall and sixty pounds.
There’s trouble aplenty, to be sure,
pardners. Jack Holt’s business rival,
played by Emery Parnell, wants to buy him out, or run him out of business,
anything to corner the market on Christmas trees, which he intends to sell for
a lot more than 75 cents.
But Mr. Parnell is unaware of the
lengths his hired men are going to in their attempts to compete with Jack Holt,
including poaching, left, arson, kidnapping, and…murder.
Clifton Young is the evil foreman, and
the movie starts with fisticuffs between him and Roy.
Interesting thing about Roy Rogers, no
matter how many fistfights, or running to leap onto his horse, he never seems
out of breath. And he has to do one or
the other every five minutes. He must be
fit as heck, by golly.
And, like a lot of government soil
conservation workers, he sings purty.
There are a few pleasant musical interludes in between bouts of arson,
fighting and…murder. The songs include
“Home Town Jubilee” at a town picnic and turkey shoot—where Sis, due to her
marksmanship wins a turkey, which becomes her pet. She calls him Sir Galahad. He has no billing in the credits, either.
“Get a Christmas Tree for Johnny,” is a
peppy ditty they all warble when the town turns out (including the Riders of
the Purple Sage) to help tie bundles of Christmas trees together to load onto
the wagons. They use the saloon for this
party, and a huge decorated tree is the centerpiece of the festivities.
“Every Day is Christmas in the West,” is
a slow, rather lulling ballad. This is
sung as an early Christmas dinner, with Jack Holt supposedly dying in the next
room. I’m not going to get into the
particulars, except that he got smoke inhalation trying to save Sis, who was trying
to save Galahad, when the bad guys set the saloon on fire. Roy saved Jack, though. Hoisted him in a fireman’s carry and never
broke a sweat or got out of breath.
There is a sort of love interest for
Roy, if you can call it that, when Penny Edwards comes to town. She’s the daughter of the rival businessman
Emery Parnell, and she’s using her business acumen and womanly wiles to get
Jack Holt’s signature on a contract signing his land over to her pop. She’s a pretty snooty conniver at first, but
the whole arson thing turns her stomach and she reforms, gets out of her faux
cowgirl duds into a gingham dress and cooks dinner for the first time. She and Roy exchange only smiles, but we
don’t want a full-blown romance because that would be mushy.
Famous retired movie cowboy heroes, Roy, Gordon Jones,
and the little girl is the intrepid Carol Nugent.
The climax of the film is the brief, but
warm-hearted thrill for western fans when a gang of former movie cowboys show
up to help drive the trees to market in a convoy of wagons. Rex Allen, Monte Hale, Crash Corrigan, Kermit
Maynard, Allan “Rocky” Lane, Tom Keene, Tom Tyler, Bill Farnum, even former
villain George Chesbro shows up, having been reformed by Jack Holt. Sis, who is really the only sensible person
in this movie, has called them to help. She
is the best administrative assistant you could ever have.
And she drives one of the wagons loaded
with trees all by herself over a burning bridge. She is the last one to make it across before
it collapses in a burning heap over a deep gorge. I hope she wasn’t working for scale.
The villains, by the way, meet suitably
grisly ends.
Jack Holt, former square-jawed hero,
shows an old movie of his on a screen at the Christmas tree tying party at the
saloon. You know how much we love to
watch old movies at Christmas. This is a
silent feature, called Dead Man’s Gulch. However, you may note it does not appear
authentic, and that is because Mr. Holt never made a movie by that title.
Just don't make them mad.
The movie is Republic’s Trucolor
photography, which as you know is a two-color process, unlike Technicolor which
was a three-color process. It has a nice
soft look to it, but ironically, in the Trucolor photography, reds and greens
are not terribly vibrant. When you’re
making a Christmas movie, red and green are useful colors to have in your palette. The Christmas trees in this movie—obviously
an important prop in this movie about Christmas trees—look sort of brown.
But to this former little kid who
snapped a tiny branch off an evergreen to bring home, that really was green and
sometimes dusted white with snow, Jack Holt’s trees and Roy’s singing are good
enough and a pleasant way to bring Christmas into your living room.
*****************************************
"Lynch’s book is organized and well-written – and has plenty of amusing observations – but when it comes to describing Blyth’s movies, Lynch’s writing sparkles." - Ruth Kerr, Silver Screenings
"Jacqueline T. Lynch creates a poignant and thoroughly-researched mosaic of memories of a fine, upstanding human being who also happens to be a legendary entertainer." - Deborah Thomas, Java's Journey
"One of the great strengths of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is that Lynch not only gives an excellent overview of Blyth's career -- she offers detailed analyses of each of Blyth's roles -- but she puts them in the context of the larger issues of the day."- Amanda Garrett, Old Hollywood Films
"Jacqueline's book will hopefully cause many more people to take a look at this multitalented woman whose career encompassed just about every possible aspect of 20th Century entertainment." - Laura Grieve, Laura's Miscellaneous Musings
"Jacqueline T. Lynch’s Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is an extremely well researched undertaking that is a must for all Blyth fans." - Annette Bochenek, Hometowns to Hollywood
Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.
by Jacqueline T. Lynch
The first book on the career of actress Ann Blyth. Multitalented and remarkably versatile, Blyth began on radio as a child, appeared on Broadway at the age of twelve in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, and enjoyed a long and diverse career in films, theatre, television, and concerts. A sensitive dramatic actress, the youngest at the time to be nominated for her role in Mildred Pierce (1945), she also displayed a gift for comedy, and was especially endeared to fans for her expressive and exquisite lyric soprano, which was showcased in many film and stage musicals. Still a popular guest at film festivals, lovely Ms. Blyth remains a treasure of the Hollywood's golden age.
