Roy Rogers Collection
V. 1 (Roan Group)
Picture: C
Sound: C- Extras: C Shorts: C+
Roy Rogers is one of the legends of Westerns and The Roan
Group has issued a few DVDs of his early work, as have a few other
companies. Their first volume features Days
Of Jesse James (a 1939 “history” drama), King Of The Cowboys (a 1943
singing cowboy piece) and Roll On Texas Moon (a 1946 action piece), all
of which are among his better hour-long B-movies.
If you never saw his early work or ever wondered why so
much of a fuss has been made about him, you can see why he was #2 behind John
Wayne at Republic Pictures and what made him so appealing. The studio came up with the best material to
keep his success going and he has a certain innocence back then that is
actually charming. It makes for a fun,
entertaining viewing.
The 1.33 X 1 image varies from short to short to extra,
but is average overall and not too badly, though they show their age, despite
some solid peaks. The DVD was issued in
1999, so blame part of the problem on age.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is worse, down too many generations and
often with more background noise than expected. Extras include a Cowboys trailer, an alternate take from
an Armed Forces print and a 3-Strip TruColor introductory short used at film
festivals of Rogers hits. It also has
better sound than anything else on this disc, though the clip has some
damage. TruColor was the one format
that could compete technically with Technicolor, but this version did not last
long enough, sadly.
- Nicholas Sheffo
