Cheap Video Reviews: Under California Stars

Under California Stars.

DVD. 1948.

I picked this up at the 99 Cent Store after reading on the back that Trigger gets kidnapped. My interest was piqued.

While the DVD cover features a black and white still, the actual movie is in full color, so right away I was surprised by this film experience.

Smartest horse in the movies.

Under California Stars opens with footage of the Western range while Bob Nolan & The Sons of the Pioneers sing, "Under California Stars," a fine cowboy song.


Roy's horse, Trigger, gets equal credit to the man himself. They are both billed as the film's two stars. In the credits, Trigger's name carries the byline, "The smartest horse in the movies."

Trigger's trailer.

Roy plays himself in this film, a "cowboy movie star" with a 10 year long career.

As the film opens, Roy is wrapping up a movie shoot and plans to return to his ranch for a 10 year anniversary radio broadcast. He's driving along with Trigger in a horse trailer. After the opening song concludes, we see Roy approach his final destination: The Roy Rogers Ranch.

When they arrive at the ranch, the cowhands all go ape shit. They're running around dropping things and yelling at each other - "Hey, Cookie!...Hey Bob!...I saw him comin'!...He's comin' down the road!!"

"I wonder if Roy & Trigger changed since they became movie stars?"

Roy's home!

"Not Roy! He'll always be the same old horse rancher."

Suddenly, Cookie starts playing the piano and they all spontaneously break into song. And in this case, that particular song is called, "Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys."

As Roy walks in to see singing cowboys, his face just completely lightens up as if he'd just entered paradise itself.

After greeting everybody, they all run out to put Roy's car in the garage and let Trigger out of the Trailer. They are something like servants and this film is very much about Roy being a wealthy big shot. He hires and fires people all over the place when he isn't riding horses around on his ranch. It is always clear that everybody else in Roy's circle is employed by Roy. This may have been a 10th anniversary film (that is an ongoing theme) and perhaps he is just celebrating his success. There certainly is nothing shady about him. He just owns everything.

A talk with Cookie.

Next, Roy has a private talk with Cookie after learning that Cookie has hired a bunch of his cousins to work on the ranch. Nepotism doesn't sit well with Roy and he starts in on Cookie, "Cookie, if you don't quit hiring your relatives..." But the threat is interrupted by excited ranch hands. Apparently somebody has been abducting wild horses for their meat and hides. While this is not illegal, Roy and his posse head out to make sure they aren't taking any of Roy's ranch horses.

Roy sees a man lasso a horse, then knock it unconscious by whacking it in the head with a rifle butt! When the man sees Roy, he sneers, "Well Well...I should've known. Roy Rogers, the movie cowboy."

Roy immediately beats the shit out of this man, proving he is the real deal.

Pop Jordan's.

The criminal element in this movie centers around Pop Jordan's ("Horses Bought and Sold") and the film takes us over there next, where we meet Pop Jordan himself, an otherwise upstanding citizen who is thieving horses on the side. We also meet the film's young protagonist, Ted Carver & his dog, Tramp. Tramp jumps up on Pop's desk, causing Pop to exclaim, "Get that flea-bitten Australian coyote out of here!!!", which is a pretty funny thing for a guy to say.

It is in Pop Jordan's shop where the head horse thief, 'Lije (as in Elijah - he is also Ted Carver's step father) get the big idea to kidnap Trigger for a ransom.

Carolyn, the attractive horse trainer.

Back at Roy's Ranch, we meet another of Cookie's cousins, the attractive Carolyn who Cookie has hired as a horse trainer.

When she meets Roy face to face, Carolyn passes out from excitement. Roy catches her & comments to Cookie, "I can tell she's your relative; she weighs a ton".

Cut to the next day - Cookie is looking for the ranch hands and finds them all slacking in the stable. All the cowboys are hanging out in Trigger's stable, just adoring this great horse. One is brushing Trigger's mane, and the rest are playing cards. They all begin singing a cowboy ballad about "the cowboy and the coyote" and it's a fine song.

Roy enters the stable during the song and it just brings joy to Roy Rogers' heart when he hears cowboys singing. He is utterly delighted.

"As long as you haven't run away from home."

Next, Roy spots Ted Carver & his dog, Tramp. He picks them up, one at a time, and sits them on a bale of hay. Ted wants a job working for Roy and Roy doesn't mind at all, "as long as you haven't run away from home."

Back at Pop's, 'Lije is being reemed out - "That kid of yours is up at Rogers Ranch, asking about a job!"

The cattle rustlers decide to take advantage of the situation to get ahold of Trigger. They visit the ranch and act thrilled that the kid will be working and living with Roy instead of living at home with his step-father, which I guess would be perfectly reasonable in the cowboy subculture:

Ted: "You mean I can stay? You aren't mad at me?"
'Lije: "For runnin' away? NOoo! Noooo!!"

The film's big moment of levity occurs in the form of a race between horse and dog. Trigger and Tramp race each other, running down a long dirt road at full speed. The little dog is going so fast, you can hardly see his feet and everyone is going crazy yelling, "C'mon, Trigger!!" and "C'mon, Tramp!!"  Of course, Trigger wins.

10th anniversary radio broadcast.

Cut to Roy's 10th anniversary radio broadcast - Roy cuts a cake and comments, "It's so pretty, I kinda hate to cut it". Then, of course, he leads a chorus of cowboys in song.

While otherwise good-natured and sort of a harmless buffoon, Cookie may be part German as well, because he holds no love for children at all. During the celebration, we see Cookie smack Ted's hand when he makes a grab for a piece of cake. Under the table, however, Cookie is feeding cake to the boy's dog, Tramp. At another point in the film, Cookie says to Roy (regarding Ted), "He's not one of us! We were bigger than him when we were born!"

A bloody gash.

What a thing to say!

Rough stuff.

During this celebration of Roy's career, however; back on Roy's ranch, the kidnappers are going after Trigger! They also rough up Ted, and pistol-whip the dog, Tramp, right in the head; leaving a realistic bloody gash.

They tell Ted that if he mentions anything about this, they're going to blow his head off.

The capture of Trigger.

Horse Thieving Tip -  As the kidnappers approach Trigger, their leader exclaims, "Not that way! He'll kick your brains out! Rope that mare and lead her out, he'll follow her.

So they lasso Trigger, who rears up on his hind legs heroically, but to no avail.

The headlines!

The next day's headline reads: "Trigger Kidnaped".

Pop's ransom note.

The radio announcer describes widespread searches, "by plane, automobile, and horse".
Meanwhile, Pop is hard at work on a ransom note.

One rustler (the one who Roy beat up earlier) opines, "$100,000?? I think that's too high! Why don't we ask for $10,000?". He apparently doesn't appreciate Trigger's celebrity value. Roy arranges for his Hollywood movie studio deliver him $100,000 and then sings Ted Carver a sad cowboy lullaby in Spanish.

This moment of peace is short lived as the rustler (the one who Roy beat up earlier) breaks up the song at gunpoint. He tries to undercut Pop and says he'll tell Roy where Trigger is for $10,000 instead of $100,000.

Then he is promptly shot through the window. Right in the back! For double-dealing!

Cookie has been writing the movie's title song, "Under California Stars", but is too choked up to perform it. Then, like that wasn't bad enough, the sheriff refuses to let Roy pay the ransom because he doesn't want to encourage the rustlers to pull similar stunts in the future. Even though Roy is freaking rich and argues that $100,000 is nothing compared to Trigger's life; he does finally see the sheriff's point. So they hatch a plan to use fake money and trace it back to the kidnappers.

"Under California Stars."

Before they set off though, Roy joins Carolyn in a verse of Cookie's "Under California Stars".

Roy likes the song so much he agrees to use it in his movie. He then fires Cookie for "writing songs on ranch time", then immediately hires him to come to Hollywood as his song-writer.

Cookie faints just like his cousin Carolyn did earlier. Roy has that kind of power over people. As Cookie recovers, he is murmuring, "Hollywood. Swimming pools. Lights. Girls!"

Then everyone goes after the kidnappers. Well, there's a lot of crap footage here, then finally the counterfeiters bullwhip Trigger until he goes inside their cabin so nobody sees him. Trigger finally complies, but only after bringing his hooves down on one man, crippling him for life.

When they discover the ransom money is counterfeit, it is time to kill Trigger. 'Lije pulls out a shotgun (though I find it impossible to accept somebody would shoot a horse with a shotgun INSIDE a cabin - that just seems crazy to me). He comments to the other horse thieves, "Boys, get your shovels. We gotta bury the evidence."

Horse following dog.

Suddenly, Ted Carver shows up with the real ransom money. He hands it over in exchange for Trigger's life. Pop decides to take the money & burn the cabin down with Trigger & Ted inside it. The guy that Trigger crippled yells out, "Hey! How about me!! I can't move!" Then he is immediately shot.

Now, on the day that Pop wrote Trigger's ransom note, Ted Carver & Tramp visited his office. Tramp got in the trash as usual and now Roy discover's where Tramp stockpiles all the garbage he steals.
While going through various items and laughing - Pop's glove, a boot - Roy finds the newspaper cut up for the ransom note! And he goes apeshit! No time to sing, they are on their way!!!

More horses following horse.

Tramp is let out of the house because they know he'll run straight to Ted Carver, wherever he may be.

The next scene is thrilling!! It consists of a dog running full speed with Roy Rogers following on a horse, and finally about ten cowboys chasing after Roy.

So, to make things short, big shoot out, big chase scene - finally 'Lije and Pop are the only ones unaccounted for. 'Lije shoots Pop on the Northern Trail and Roy hears the shot and beats the shit out of 'Lije.

Then suddenly, Pop reappears and hoots 'Lije for double crossing him and then dies from his wounds, so everybody is happy.

Happy Trails, Roy!

Next thing we know, Roy is heading back to Hollywood with Ted Carver up front and his new song-writer, Cookie, in the back with the dog, Tramp. The ranch-hands stay behind, keeping an eye on things until Roy's return.

Comments - Under California Stars was ok. It had its moments and a couple of enjoyable musical numbers. Definitely worth 99 cents.

I admire Roy and I also really liked the film's strong "Don't be a double-crosser" message, though Cookie often over-acted. This makes me think I might enjoy other Roy Rogers films. We may or may not ever know.

[ Reviewed February, 2006. ]