MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: COLORADO (1940)

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Friday, September 4, 2026

COLORADO (1940)

Republic Pictures stalwart Joseph Kane directs this atypically ambitious Roy Rogers programmer. (Admittedly more aspirational than fully achieved.) No Western (and with hardly a verse of song), but a Civil War meller about Captain Jerry Burke (Rogers), assigned by no less than General Ulysses S. Grant to break up a Sessionist Conspiracy in Colorado illegally selling guns to the Indians and letting outlaws run wild, all so Union soldiers are needed to keep the peace and patrol the territory and can’t be sent East to fight in the war. True Southern loyalists and venal public officials joining to help the cause or make a buck. This complicated by a neat personal story with pretty Pauline Moore joining the stagecoach with Roy and sidekick Gabby Hayes (hey!, it’s still a Roy Rogers’ pic, no?) on her way to meet fiancé Milburn Stone (later Doc in GUNSMOKE), a turncoat Captain who Rogers keeps giving a break to (and vice versa). Hmm, what’s that about? Running about an hour, well acted and shot on locations John Ford wouldn’t have sneered at. If only we could properly see it! Alas, yet another poorly preserved slice of American cinematic history left to fall into public domain purgatory, but worth the hunt to find a minimally acceptable download amid the subfusc crowd.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Rogers, not yet 30, has yet to acquire that ageless look or Dale Evans. But did already have Trigger. (Acquiring the horse not long after Olivia de Havilland rode him in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD/’38.)

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *A pair of properly restored Rogers in Republic’s own TruColor system out via KINO. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/03/sunset-in-west-1950.html

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Friday, September 4, 2026

COLORADO (1940)

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