That was an excellent one.

An action-packed slog

A Brilliant Conflict

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Despite the title, this is not a film from the Rough Riders series from Monogram--though Raymond Hatton (one of the three Rough Riders) does appear in this film. Instead, it's a Roy Rogers film--and it's set just after the end of the Spanish-American War (1898)--rather late for a western film. So, the 'Rough Riders' in the title is a reference to the men who had just returned from fighting in Cuba (with Colonel Roosevelt).The film finds these recent war vets in Arizona along the border. There is a bandit, Arizona Jack, who runs back and forth across this border--and US Customs officials are anxious to catch him without starting an international incident. At the same time, there is a runaway lady who they are also admonished to locate. Somehow these two things are interrelated and it's up to Roy and the gang to set things right--mostly be ignoring the law and international boundaries! This is a rather enjoyable Rogers outing and interestingly enough, it actually discusses a serious problem in the early part of the 20th century--Mexican bandit incursions into the US for raids. In the film, the bandit was an American but in real life they were Mexicans and resulted in the US briefly invading Mexico in search of him. Not a great film but worth seeing even if the music is only so-so.

Roy Rogers (as Roy) and sidekick Raymond Hatton (as Rusty) join Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders". Soon, they get suspended in order to "Round-up" the killer of partner Eddie Acuff (as Tommy) along the Mexican-U.S. border; they discover creepy gold runners in the process. Notice how, even suspended, Mr. Rogers is able to get the Rough Riders to join in his Round-up! This is not one of the better Roy Rogers westerns. The fighting scenes look like choreographed dances. Rogers sings/yodels "Ridin' Down the Trail", one of two relatively ordinary songs; and, a stand-out moment, overall. ** Rough Riders' Round-up (3/13/39) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, Raymond Hatton, Lynne Roberts

This is a good "B" movie – it doesn't offer up any life-changing concepts and, no, it doesn't pretend to. This movie is all about showing Roy Rodgers as a man of action, a former "Rough Rider" under Teddy Roosevelt who, along with a group of fellow veterans, takes a job patrolling the Mexican-American border after the war ends. Given that set-up the film is slightly disappointing depending on your point of view, because other than a brief amusing scene where Roy gets in a fight with a man at a train station because the man said something disparaging about Roosevelt there's really nothing in this film relating to the fact that they are Rough Riders. And the only thing they round up is a bunch of kidnappers.This is a fairly early Rodgers film, so we don't see a lot of his usual co-stars. In place of Dale Evans, we have Mary Hart (aka Lynne Roberts) as the feisty daughter of a mine owner across the border. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the man she's engaged to is also a criminal who has had her kidnapped. Personally I felt she was a bit too civilized for the frontier. Instead of Gabby Hayes we have Raymond Hatton, who I've previously seen in "grizly-man" type roles but not such a comedic one. He does an OK job in this movie; like Hart basically sufficient but not special. I liked how he beat Roy back to the camp on his mule and how he shouts "Hi Ho Dinah!" when he spurs the mule on. We do seem to have the famous horse Trigger, or a horse that looks very much like him, though I didn't see his name on the credits. That's significant, folks, because a few years later Trigger was probably a lot more famous than most of the human actors who appeared in these films! I haven't seen as many of Rodgers' films as I have of Gene Autry's, but it seemed to me that this film was somewhat grittier and more plot-driven than his later films. I recently saw "Trigger Jr." and felt that it had better photography and music but a less compelling story than this one. There was only a little bit of singing in this one, but Roy did get to show off his yodeling ability.All in all it's not a very memorable film but there were some good stunts, decent songs, and I was not bored while watching it.

This is one of those perfectly acceptable 30s B-movies that does exactly what it sets out to do with a refreshing degree of professionalism by all involved, but which is completely forgotten within a couple of days of viewing. Roy Rogers' fans might feel a little cheated by the fact that he doesn't sing much but it's something of a bonus for us viewers who prefer cowboys of the non-singing variety. The writers must have been struggling to find reasons to have Rogers singing in this one, and one of the few occasions when he does a little crooning is courtesy of a guitar he discovers in a deserted house in which he has been imprisoned by dastardly Arizona Jack's ragtag band of desperadoes – which is about as likely as finding an ice cube in a sauna when you think about it. Perhaps he leaves guitars dotted around the western countryside for just such an eventuality. Perhaps they're a source of energy like goblets of wine and stuff found in unlikely places in PC games. I don't know.Anyway, the story is reasonably absorbing, although the bad guys might as well walk around with "Bad Guy" badges on their lapels. I mean, spotty tie, checked shirt and spivvy 'tache – what a giveaway! And all of a sudden Eddie Acuff as Roy's semi-comic sidekick starts riding around on his horse hollering "Hi Ho, Dinah" at every opportunity as if he fancies himself as the next Lone Ranger.It's all pretty good, undemanding fun and, clocking in at less than an hour, it's well worth giving it a try.