Roy Rogers made around a hundred pictures, and I have seen most of them, many more than once, first at the Saturday matinee and later on
television and now on videotape. It would be foolish to call any ten of them "the best." These are only the ten I love best, in the order
they came out, with a word about each. If yours is not here, write and tell me about it, and I will very likely agree with you.
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1. Under Western Stars (1938)
His first starring picture, and the first time anybody saw the name Roy Rogers on a marquee. He plays a young cowboy who goes all
the way to Washington to stand up for the dried-out ranchers back home. He is young and a little stiff and you can see already why people
liked him.
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2. Dark Command (1940)
Not a Roy Rogers picture, strictly. It is a big picture with John Wayne and Claire Trevor and Walter Pidgeon, directed by Raoul
Walsh, and Roy has a supporting part. But it shows he could hold his own in that company, and my brother Larry and I saw it three Saturdays in a
row.
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3. King of the Cowboys (1943)
A wartime picture, and the one whose title stuck to him for the rest of his life. I was six and this is the first Roy Rogers picture I
can remember seeing. I remember it mostly as Trigger, running.
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4. The Cowboy and the Senorita (1944)
The first picture Roy and Dale made together. Nobody knew then what it would come to. Watching it now, knowing, is a fine thing.
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5. Don't Fence Me In (1945)
Named for the Cole Porter song, which Roy sings, with Gabby Hayes and Dale and the Sons of the Pioneers all in it. This is the one I
would show somebody who had never seen a singing Western, to show them how it is done.
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6. My Pal Trigger (1946)
My favorite. It tells how Roy and Trigger came to be together, with Gabby Hayes and Dale. It has more story in it than most of the
Westerns of that time, and there is a part in the middle that made two boys in Portsmouth cry, though we would have denied it.
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7. Apache Rose (1947)
His first picture in color. After years of black and white, seeing Trigger gold on the screen at last was something to remember.
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8. Melody Time (1948)
A Walt Disney picture, made of several short pieces, and Roy and Trigger and the Sons of the Pioneers have one of them, telling the
tall tale of Pecos Bill to a couple of children around a campfire. My grandchildren love it, which pleases me more than I can say.
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9. Son of Paleface (1952)
A comedy, with Bob Hope and Jane Russell. Roy plays it straight and lets Bob Hope be the fool, and Trigger very nearly steals the
picture out from under all three of them. I laugh at it every time.
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10. Mackintosh and T.J. (1975)
His last starring picture, made more than twenty years after the others, when he was in his sixties. He plays an old ranch hand who
takes a runaway boy under his wing. There is no singing and no Trigger, and he is very good in it. I wish he had made more like it.
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Most of these can be found on videotape now, and some of them turn up on television on Saturday mornings, the way they used to. If you have
grandchildren, sit them down with one. They may surprise you.
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Last updated September 4, 1999
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