a5c7b9f00b Fur theives are looting the traps on the ranch where Roy is foreman and they have murdered one of Roy's friends. To complicate matters, the ranch owner, unknown to Roy, arrives with her girlfriend posing as a member of the lonely hearts club. Roy gets a tip on the outlaws but it's a trap and Roy and the boys soon find themselves in jail with the townspeople and trappers on the way to lynch them.
Don't be fooled by the slightly silly-sounding title - 'Romance On the Range' is one of the very best of Roy Rogers' films from the early '40s. There's nothing terribly unusual about the plot, but all of its elements - tight scripting, great cast, good direction, beautiful cinematography and excellent music - come together in just the right way to make it a solid and entertaining B-Western.<br/><br/>The villains in this instance are fur thieves looting the traps on the ranch where Roy, Gabby Hayes and the Sons of the Pioneers work as foreman, camp cook and cowhands, respectively. Roy & Co. take a personal interest when another cowhand (noted stuntman Henry Wills in an uncredited bit part) is murdered after stumbling onto the gang at work. Meanwhile, the ranch's absentee owner (Linda Hayes, in the best of her three roles opposite Roy) also takes an interest in the case and decides to come West incognito to do some investigating of her own, posing as a friend of her excitable maid Sally Payne, who coincidentally has been corresponding with ranch hand Pat Brady through a Lonely Hearts club. <br/><br/>The good guys take the requisite amount of time to realize who the bad guys are, leaving plenty of room for fun, mishaps and music along the way. George 'Gabby' Hayes is at his very best as the cantankerous ranch cook, especially in one absolutely hysterical sequence where he tries to scare the girls away from the ranch by playing on their fear of wild animals. There's also an exceptional line-up of villains in this one - besides brains heavy Edward Pawley we have Glenn Strange, Roy Barcoft, who provides a humorous running gag with a taste for sleight-of-hand and tricky 'gadgets,' and an especially nasty Harry Woods. As the icing on the cake, Roy and the Sons are in fine voice, performing five outstanding musical numbers, of which the highlight is the irresistibly toe-tapping showstopper 'Sing As You Work.' Altogether, a must-see for fans of Roy's, B-Western enthusiasts or just anyone who likes a fun and well-crafted little film.
Romance Rides The Range has Roy Rogers and the Sons Of The Pioneers as foreman and ranch hands for absentee owner, society girl Linda Hayes. The place has a sideline in fur trapping, but it's poaching those furs and not cattle rustling that Roy's concerned about.<br/><br/>So is Hayes and she decides to go to her ranch to investigate herself, but go incognito. She and her maid Sally Payne go and tell no one who Hayes is. As it turns out Payne has a correspondence boy friend among the hands in Pat Brady.<br/><br/>There are some clever poachers that Roy has to deal with that include perennial western villains Roy Barcroft, Harry Woods, and Glenn Strange. They also have a really thick sheriff in Hal Taliaferro as well.<br/><br/>Some of Roy's banter with Linda Hayes was nice, but would work far better when Dale Evans was cast as his leading lady in film and in life. Still Roy and Hayes have some nice dialog between them.<br/><br/>This maybe the first time Pat Brady was prominently featured in a Roy Rogers western. Pat was a funny guy and stroked a mean bass fiddle. But seeing him out on the range accompanying the Sons Of The Pioneers was a bit much. The tradition of the singing cowboy has a basis when cowboys were riding herd especially at night, they would sing to the cattle to keep them calm. But I doubt that anyone would pack a bass fiddle on the range.<br/><br/>This is also a change from 19th century to 20th century settings for Roy Rogers films. And he used a good film to do it in.