Very Cool!!!

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Dreadfully Boring

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

It's always dangerous to be a lovable old timer in a 'B' western, and sure enough, the Sons of the Pioneers are soon singing at the funeral of Harry Cheshire as Cap Foster, proprietor of the local wildlife sanctuary, who has been shot in cold blood at point blank range by the film's stylishly wicked villainess Jean Loring, played by Stephanie Bachelor.Ms Loring has brought cattle rustling into the Twentieth Century as well as the Sierras when she arrives from the East and installs an enormous deep freeze on her property to store venison obtained from the heinous offence of hunting deer out of season. Not content with already demonstrating herself (in the words of a judge) one of "the lowest, most contemptible breed of all criminals" - and despite having the hulking Roy Barcroft on hand to provide muscle (if not brains) when required - the nefarious Ms Loring doesn't flinch from doing her own dirty work, and personally kills two people without batting an eyelid. She obviously didn't go to the movies often enough, though, or she'd have known better than to mess with Roy Rogers in the first place, and eventually gets her lights punched out by Jane Frazee; who the presence of a female villain satisfyingly provides with someone that for once she too can rough up while Rogers is disposing of Barcroft.Considering that the plot - despite the jolly title - hinges upon a particularly ruthless murder, the tone of 'Springtime in the Sierras' remains persistently light-hearted for much of its duration, with a ratio of comedy relief and songs to plot in a film that runs only 75 minutes that surpasses even that of a Bollywood movie.

Considering all the Westerns and cowboy stars I've seen in action, Roy Rogers pulls a move here I've never seen before and it looked really cool. Near the finale with the bad guys giving chase on horseback, Roy hooks his left leg over Triggers saddle, faces backwards towards his pursuers, and with his right foot firmly in the stirrup, begins shooting at full gallop! So as I'm marveling over that maneuver, good girl Taffy Baker (Jane Frazee) catches up with bad girl Jean Loring (Stephanie Bachelor), knocks her off her horse, and brings her personal battle to an end with a solid right cross! What more could you ask for?Well I probably shouldn't have started with the way the picture ends, but the film did have an exciting finish. Leading up to it had Roy investigating the murder of old friend Cap Foster (Harry Cheshire) on his way to exposing a poaching racket that had Miss Loring's bunch hunting game out of season and turning a profit on selling illegal venison. I have to say, the Loring character could have given any male villain a run for his money; she's the one who plugged ole Cap while smugly stating, "This is going to hurt a little bit".So let's see, besides Trigger in this one, we've got Snoopy the squirrel and Jimmy the Crow in supporting animal roles. The animal theme probably made this flick a Roy Rogers favorite back during the matinée days, and it still appears pretty entertaining today. The picture seemed to go out of it's way a bit in the early stages when a piece of stock footage was used to convey an anti-poaching message by calling out professional hunters who do it for the money. The story then goes on to excoriate the poachers for using silencers, telescopic gun-sights and camouflage gear to shoot their prey, thereby taking the sport right out of traditional hunting for food and survival.With Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers on hand, the picture offers up a good eight or nine tunes in it's seventy five minute run. Roy does well by the picture's title with an opening rendition and then once more about a third of the way through. Andy Devine sidekicks Roy as his recurring character Cookie Bullfincher, and I was pleased to see the uncredited Pat Brady with a fair amount of screen time.

Springtime In The Sierras finds Roy Rogers trying to help Harry Cheshire who is animal lover and conservationist against out of season poachers. Cheshire runs an animal shelter and hospital from his place in the mountains where he also has a crusade against those who poach. Cheshire is convinced that there is an organized gang of poachers operating in his woods. His investigation proves right and he's killed for his troubles. That brings Roy into the picture big time.Roy has two women in this film good girl Jane Frazee whose brother Harold Landon is mixed up with the poachers and Joan Lorring who heads the poachers along with her number one aide, perennial western villain Roy Barcroft. In the climax Roy and Roy mix it up along side a dandy chick fight with Jane and Joan. I also have to say that Lorring is one evil villain in this film.Andy Devine who did several Rogers films in the Forties is in this one in his usual befuddled state. Andy was a good ally to have, but he was kind of slow and there isn't a Roy Rogers film in it where he doesn't to have Roy patiently explain the situation. Of course it's a plot device to make sure the Saturday afternoon kids understood exactly what was happening, still it made Andy look stupid. But it was worth seeing him at the climax give one of Lorring/Barcroft's henchmen the big splash as you would see someone like King Kong Bundy do. That villain would have been out for a 25 count on the WWE.As someone who is not particularly fond of hunting other than as a means for food and regulated at that, I have a soft spot in my heart for this particular film. I wish I had seen a full length version, but what I saw was cut down for television back in the day.

Roy Rogers returns to an old boyhood hometown in the Sierras, where he discovers poachers killing off the area deer. Mr. Rogers finds an abandoned fawn, and brings it to "The Sanitarium" - an animal refuge run by old friend Harry Cheshire (as Cap. Foster); there, he finds Mr. Cheshire treating the fawn's mother for a bullet wound. When the animal-loving Cheshire stumbles upon the gang of poachers, he is murdered. Rogers must find those responsible. Sheriff Andy Devine (as "Cookie") lends an occasional hand.The characterizations are very good; especially, the introduction, and disposal, of the character played by Harry Cheshire ("Cap Foster"). The characters played by Stephanie Bachelor ("Miss Loring") and Hal Landon ("Bert") are also nicely drawn. Memorably, Rogers is dramatically beaten and left for dead in a meat freezer. Of course, Rogers escapes frozen death - and the ensuing shootout is quite exciting. During the obligatory shootout, note that the shots fired actually mean something; there is no pointless shooting, so a sense of real danger prevails. "Good Girl" Jane Frazee and "Bad Girl" Loring have a cool fistfight, too.Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers demonstrate some excellent harmony and backing vocals on "A Cowboy Has To Sing". On the other hand, "Oh, What a Picture" is dreadful - not only for Mr. Devine's "comedy" vocal, but also for ruining the dramatic pace of the film. A redundant comedy interlude follows almost immediately ("What are You Going to Do Then?"); only one, if any, is really needed. The title song "Springtime in the Sierras" has a strained film tie-in. ***** Springtime in the Sierras (1947) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, Jane Frazee, Andy Devine