Night Time in Nevada (1948)

Please don't spend money on this.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Unfortunately, in stark contrast to the excellent work DVD companies have done for Gene Autry and Bill Boyd, Roy Rogers has been treated rather shabbily. Many of the titles on sale offer blurry, faded, out-of-focus pictures with garbled and/or muffled sound tracks. Even worse, the Trucolor entries are often presented in various shades of gray. An exception is "Night Time in Nevada" (1948) which Mill Creek present in a well-graded black-and-white copy. I'd rather watch Trucolor, but even in black-and-white, the movie provides a feast for railroad buffs, plus fans of Grant Withers who turns in one of his most charismatic portrayals ever. In fact, I think Sloan Nibley wrote his screenplay primarily with Withers in mind as the villain, and then added Roy, Andy Devine and the super-wonderful George Carleton who plays the crooked lawyer.

One of the nastiest villains that Roy Rogers ever tangled with was played by Grant Withers in Night Time In Nevada. He kills three of his partners during the course of this film.The first one was his partner in a mine played by Jim Nolan and told to another partner in flashback. George M. Carleton is your basic shyster attorney and they plot to do Nolan's now grown daughter Adele Mara out of a trust fund that Nolan set up for her and which lawyer Carleton has been bilking over the years.Another murder, that of beloved train engineer Joseph Crehan, brings Roy Rogers, Andy Devine and the Sons Of The Pioneers into the mix. With Mara and girlfriend Elaine Edwards now arrived the bad guys are of course brought to justice.Other than the classic Big Rock Candy Mountain there are no really good songs in this Roy Rogers film. But that's made up for in the action which comes fast and furious. The climax is well staged with Roy holding off the bad guys on a moving train.Roy's Saturday matinée kid crowd definitely loved this one.

A ruthless gold miner blows his partner, only to discover that the mine he killed for is useless. He then squanders the trust-fund meant for the dead man's daughter and attempts to replace the funds by stealing Roy Roger's cattle.Coming near the end of Roy's career as a Saturday matinée star (and TV re-launch), Night Time In Nevada is more violent and a bit more hard-boiled than previous films. The opening scene is a first-person murder confession, the subsequent killing of the train conductor pretty cold-blooded, and the climax full of people getting shot!Villain Grant Withers is one really mean hombre! Walking and talking like a B-movie Broderick Crawford, he gives a great, nasty performance.Comedic elements are down-played and Dale Evans nowhere to be found. In the edited version, Roy nor Bob Nolan and The Sons Of The Pioneers get a chance to sing! All of this, along with the edited version being black and white instead of color, contribute to the somewhat darker tone of the film.Recommended.

Roy, Trigger & Andy Devine are featured in this 1940's shoot-em-up that involves mining company rip-offs, double-dealing and the obligatory cowboy crooning. The plot and action are pretty standard, and the music is noteworthy -- especially "Rock Candy Mountain". The King of the Cowboys was in fine form in this one, with Andy Devine as one of his better sidekicks (but not as good as Gabby !).The stunts in this film were well done and superior to most in other stars films. I enjoyed this one and felt that the pacing and casting were fairly good. Most of Roger's films from this period seem interchangeable , but fans of the genre should enjoy this ride down the Happy Trails..........