Trigger, Jr. (1950) Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans, Pat Brady, Gordon Jones, Grant Withers Movie Review

Trigger, Jr. (1950)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Roy Rogers and Dale Evans in Trigger, Jr. (1950)

The Phantom Trigger

Winter is coming and Roy Rogers along with his Wild West show are heading to the ranch of Colonel Harkrider (George Cleveland) who use to be partners with Roy's father, running the circus together. But the death of one of his daughters and his grandson being afraid of horses lead to him retiring to run a horse ranch with his other daughter, Kay (Dale Evans). But the Colonel has problems as the ranchers have been paying Manson (Grant Withers) and his so-called "Range Patrol" to protect their land and their horses, keeping them from ending up on other rancher's land but he doesn't really do anything. With the Colonel and other ranchers calling for the end of the Range Patrol, Manson starts using a vicious wild horse known as the Phantom to destroy the Colonel's horses leading to Roy, Trigger and Trigger's son to try and bring an end to Manson's scam.

Although I can't bring myself to tell you that "Trigger, Jr." is anything but just an okay movie I will say this is a good example of how to take something routine and make it entertaining. That routine part is a scheming businessman who has various scams to force people off of their lands be it by fleecing them of money, burning down their property or destroying their horses. But it is all the other bits which make this movie entertaining such as Roy and his group of performers going to stay with the grumpy former partner of his father. We also have the addition of Trigger's son which adds to some variation when it comes to the heroics towards the end of the movie which of course sees a young boy afraid of horses confronting his fear to be an important part of saving the day.

On top of all this William Witney keeps the movie turning over so there is always something going on. We get some shots of circus performers from trick riders to dare devils on tall swaying poles, there is some humour including a gag involving an exploding cigar, drama involving a dangerous horse and of course action when it comes to saving the day. That is very much what makes "Trigger, Jr." as it is anything but boring or drawn out despite being routine in places.

What this all boils down to is that "Trigger, Jr." is still an entertaining Roy Rogers movie which whilst using a familiar storyline at its heart keeps it moving filling every scene with some thing be it humour, action or of course some music.


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