"Cowboy and the Senorita" is the very first screen pairing of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and it comes across surprisingly well. The film title is also the name of the opening and closing musical number, and even if not meant to be prophetic, the eventual marriage of Roy and Dale proved to be a wonderful union for film goers and fans of the Western duo.
The story involves a missing runaway Chip Williams (Mary Lee), who is revealed to be Ysobel Martinez' (Dale Evans) half sister. Chip needs to find out what her deceased father left her in a box buried in an abandoned mine on the Martinez property. The mine is soon to be sold to Ysobel's fiancé Craig Allen (John Hubbard), and that should give you an idea where the story is headed. Allen and his henchmen have already begun excavating the mine for it's hoard of gold, while busily setting about to frame Roy and his sidekick Teddy Bear (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) for Chip's disappearance, and later for the theft of two thousand dollars from his personal office safe.
To be sure, there are manufactured elements that defy coincidence in the story; Chip discovers her father's missing treasure on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the day on which her father specified it should be opened. In a letter accompanying the discovered box, it states that a bracelet she already owns (and lost, conveniently found by Roy and Teddy Bear) is her only inheritance, but she should examine it closely for the treasure to reveal itself.
Bad guy Craig Allen, Ysobel's fiancé furiously denies his complicity in any cover-up scheme. In an interesting response by Roy, the film's date is put into historical perspective - there's enough gold in the assayer's office to make Allen the biggest liar in 40 states!
Since most of Roy's films offer Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine as the comedic sidekick, it's a refreshing change of pace to see Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in that capacity here. The clumsy Williams spends a lot of his time falling down, but he also has a highlight line in the film; when Craig Allen's henchman Ferguson wavers in admitting their role in the mine cover-up, Big Boy offers to "take him to the memory room".
The film ends on a quite lavish musical number that starts out with dancers circling a huge sombrero. It's a fitting end to an engaging story, with Roy's arms clasped around not one, but two pretty senoritas - Dale Evans and Mary Lee.
The story involves a missing runaway Chip Williams (Mary Lee), who is revealed to be Ysobel Martinez' (Dale Evans) half sister. Chip needs to find out what her deceased father left her in a box buried in an abandoned mine on the Martinez property. The mine is soon to be sold to Ysobel's fiancé Craig Allen (John Hubbard), and that should give you an idea where the story is headed. Allen and his henchmen have already begun excavating the mine for it's hoard of gold, while busily setting about to frame Roy and his sidekick Teddy Bear (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) for Chip's disappearance, and later for the theft of two thousand dollars from his personal office safe.
To be sure, there are manufactured elements that defy coincidence in the story; Chip discovers her father's missing treasure on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the day on which her father specified it should be opened. In a letter accompanying the discovered box, it states that a bracelet she already owns (and lost, conveniently found by Roy and Teddy Bear) is her only inheritance, but she should examine it closely for the treasure to reveal itself.
Bad guy Craig Allen, Ysobel's fiancé furiously denies his complicity in any cover-up scheme. In an interesting response by Roy, the film's date is put into historical perspective - there's enough gold in the assayer's office to make Allen the biggest liar in 40 states!
Since most of Roy's films offer Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine as the comedic sidekick, it's a refreshing change of pace to see Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in that capacity here. The clumsy Williams spends a lot of his time falling down, but he also has a highlight line in the film; when Craig Allen's henchman Ferguson wavers in admitting their role in the mine cover-up, Big Boy offers to "take him to the memory room".
The film ends on a quite lavish musical number that starts out with dancers circling a huge sombrero. It's a fitting end to an engaging story, with Roy's arms clasped around not one, but two pretty senoritas - Dale Evans and Mary Lee.