Detail view of Movies Page

Movie Detail

Name Occurs Before Title

Offscreen Credit

Print Viewed By AFI

Utah

Director: John English (Dir) Release Date: 21 Mar 1945 Premiere Information: New York opening: 7 Mar 1945 Production Date: late Nov--late Dec 1944 Duration (in mins): 77-78 Duration (in feet): 6,952 Duration (in reels): 8			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:	Roy Rogers	(Roy Rogers)
	Trigger		The Smartest Horse in the Movies
	George "Gabby" Hayes	(Gabby Whittaker)
	Dale Evans	(Dorothy Bryant)
	Peggy Stewart	(Jackie)
	Beverly Loyd	(Wanda Harris)
	Jill Browning	(Babe)
	Vivien Oakland	(Stella Mason)
	Grant Withers	(Ben Bowman)
	Hal Taliaferro	(Steve Lacey)
	Jack Rutherford	(Sheriff)
	Emmett Vogan	(District Attorney)
	Bob Nolan		and The Sons of the Pioneers

Summary:

Dorothy Bryant, a singer in a Chicago musical play, learns that the show will shut down unless the producers come up with $25,000. She and her friends immediately set off for Coldbrook, Utah, where Dorothy has inherited the Bar X ranch, which is run by Roy Rogers and Gabby Whittaker. Realizing that Dorothy wants to put the ranch up for sale, Roy has his men fix up the place to impress her. When he picks the women up at the train station, however, Roy and Dorothy take a quick dislike to each other. He disapproves of her plan to sell the land, and she feels that he and Gabby take a superior tone with her. On the way back to the ranch, Roy pretends the car has broken down, which gives him and Gabby enough time to switch the signs between the Bar X and Gabby's small, broken-down piece of property. After Dorothy sees Gabby's place, thinking it is hers, she decides she cannot make much money from its sale and plans to leave the next day. Crooked cattle dealers Ben Bowman and Steve Lacey, however, make an appointment with her, hoping to take advantage of the misunderstanding by offering Dorothy very little money for her ranch, which they can then re-sell at a hefty profit. That night, Roy brings a horse over for Dorothy and they take a ride together, during which he shows her the beauty of the land and convinces her not to sell. In the meantime, Dorothy's friend, Wanda Harris, has met up with Robert, one of Roy's cattle drivers, and he has revealed Roy's plan to her. When Dorothy returns to their shack, she overhears Wanda telling the other women that Roy has been swindling Dorothy by making her fall in love with him. Hurt, she sells the land to Bowman for $5,000 the next day, and Bowman immediately brings his men to the Bar X to round up the cattle. Roy and his men rush out, and, not believing Bowman when he insists he now owns the ranch, they fight and land in jail. The sheriff finds Dorothy and the women at the train station, and they confirm that the ranch was sold. Robert warns Roy through the jail window that Bowman is loading the cattle onto a train for Chicago, and Roy breaks out of jail by giving the sheriff a mild electric shock. The men board the cattle train and, once in Chicago, fight Bowman and his men again. This time, they are all arrested, but when they arrive at the police station, the sheriff phones to say that Bowman's check to Dorothy has bounced and that the deal was all a trick. Although Bowman writes another check for Dorothy, the Chicago police hold him and Lacey for fraud. Roy delivers the now-good check to Dorothy, the show's name is changed to Utah , and Roy, Gabby and Dorothy show the rest of the cast how a "western comedy with music" should be done.

Production Company:	Republic Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company:	Republic Pictures Corp.
Director:	John English	(Dir)
	Johnny Grubbs	(Asst dir)
	George Webster	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Donald H. Brown	(Assoc prod)
Writer:	Jack Townley	(Scr)
	John K. Butler	(Scr)
	Gilbert Wright	(Based on a story by)
	Betty Burbridge	(Based on a story by)
Photography:	William Bradford	(Photog)
	Joseph Novak	(2d cam)
Art Direction:	Gano Chittenden	(Art dir)
Film Editor:	Harry Keller	(Film ed)
Set Decoration:	Otto Siegel	(Set dec)
Costumes:	Adele Palmer	(Cost supv)
Music:	Morton Scott	(Mus dir)
	Dale Butts	(Orch arr)
Sound:	Tom Carman	(Sd)
	John Stransky Jr.	(Re-rec and eff)
	Howard Wilson	(Re-rec, eff and mus mixer)
Special Effects:	Howard Lydecker	(Matte paintings)
	Theodore Lydecker	(Matte paintings)
	Gordon C. Schaefer	(Transparency projection shots)
Dance:	Larry Ceballos	(Dance dir)
Make Up:	Bob Mark	(Makeup)
Country:	United States

Music:
Songs:	"Utah Trail," words and music by Bob Palmer; "Utah," words and music by Charles Henderson; "Thank Dixie for Me," words and music by Dave Franklin; "Beneath a Western Sky," words and music by Glenn Spencer; "Wild and Wooly Cowgirls" and "Cowboy Blues," words and music by Tim Spencer; "Five Little Miles," words and music by Bob Nolan; "Welcome Home Miss Bryant," words and music by Ken Carson.
Composer:	Ken Carson
	Dave Franklin
	Charles Henderson
	Bob Nolan
	Bob Palmer
	Glenn Spencer
	Tim Spencer
Source Text:

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number	Passed By NBR:
Republic Pictures Corp.	8/3/1945 dd/mm/yyyy	LP13188	Yes

PCA NO:	10668
Physical Properties:	b&w:
	Sd:	RCA Sound System


Genre:	Western
Sub-Genre:	with songs

Subjects (Major):	Cattlemen
	Fraud
	Land sales
	Ranches
	Ruses
	Singers

Subjects (Minor):	Chicago (IL)
	Deception
	Electricity
	Fights
	Granddaughters
	Inheritance
	Jailbreaks
	Lure of the country
	Plays
	Police
	Romance
	Sheepherders

Note:	According to a HR news item, portions of the film were shot on location in Lone Pine, CA. Modern sources add the following actors to the cast: Ed Cassidy, Ralph Colby, Forrest Taylor and Horace B. Carpenter.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Box Office	17 Mar 1945.
Daily Variety	9 Mar 45	p. 3.
Film Daily	12 Mar 45	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	29 Nov 44	p. 4.
Hollywood Reporter	1 Dec 44	p. 9.
Hollywood Reporter	15 Dec 44	p. 15.
Hollywood Reporter	9 Mar 45	p. 3.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	6 Jan 45	p. 2259.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	17 Mar 45	p. 2361.
New York Times	12 Mar 45	p. 22.
Variety	14 Mar 45	p. 16.

	Display Movie Summary
The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



Advanced Search