Shine On Harvest Moon (1938)

Touches You

hyped garbage

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Here's a fairly standard early Roy Rogers vehicle, where he's called upon to smoke out the outlaw who's been rustling the local ranches, backed by the president of the Teton Cattlemen's Association (Frank Jaquet). Roy's a working partner with Milt Brower (William Farnum), who in turn was once associated with villain Jackson (Stanley Andrews), so naturally, suspicion falls on him for the missing cattle. Brower has a pretty daughter (Lynne Roberts), but it didn't seem that the romance between her and Roy was that overt. But Roy did get to serenade her with a couple of songs, always good for some winning smiles and starry eyed looks.The opening credits list Lulu Belle and Scotty in their screen debut, but without that introduction we might not have known who they were. I don't recall their names being used in the picture, but I could have missed it. My copy of the picture is on the grainy side with low sound quality, so I know I missed some of the dialog.The picture takes some liberties with the location of the story. Set in Wyoming, villain Ed Jackson refers to his hideout in the mountains as Jackson Hole; it's his quote in my summary line above. I'm not sure if I've seen Stanley Andrews in a heel role before, but he seems miscast even for his size. But I'll tell you what, he and Roy get into quite a brawl near the end of the story, and since it's Roy's picture he gets to win. But Andrews had him by about six inches and at least fifty pounds. I don't think I would have riled him up too much under other circumstances.

Shine On Harvest Moon, the popular standard made famous by Nora Bayes in vaudeville and the stage, serves as the title song for this early Roy Rogers western. In this film Roy and William Farnum are partners in a ranch in Wyomng that's been having hard times. They've got no cattle of their own, they're just renting out their land for other herds to feed on at the moment.Farnum has a former partner played by Stanley Andrews who turned bad. Andrews plays Ed Jackson who has a pair of what look like inbred sons and has a valley hideout he calls the 'hole'. Somebody's giving Andrews some inside information enabling his rustling operation to be always a step ahead of the law. Suspicion falls on Farnum. But you know Roy Rogers wouldn't partner with a crook, so he does some investigating on his home. Roy's spurred on by the fact that Farnum has pretty Lynne Roberts as a daughter who Roy kind of likes.Shine On Harvest Moon is a pretty good B western, one of Roy's better early ones. And it was nice learning that Shine On Harvest Moon is also identified with another popular performer besides Nora Bayes.And because I got curious I looked up Jackson Hole, Wyoming and no the area was not named for a famous outlaw hideout.

Roy Rogers and his partner face financial ruin when the local cattlemen's association discovers the partner's former ties with the ruthless cattle rustler that's been working the area. Roy decides to clear the old man's name by taking the rustlers on.Everything about this early Roy Rogers vehicle is fairly undistinguished, with the exception of a few good songs, including the great title number and the presence of Roy himself, who's still as likable as always. The rest is just too stiff and talky.Leading lady Mary Hart is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, she isn't given anything to do here, except stand around the ranch house and fret.

Though certainly worth watching for the energy of the very likable Roy Rogers in one of his earliest starring roles, this is really just an average Western, at least by the standard of most of Rogers's movies. The story has enough to be worth watching, and there are some good moments, but not a lot more.The plot in this one has Roy in old Wyoming, where a gang of nasty cattle rustlers has been causing havoc and suspicion. Roy has to protect his ranching partner, figure out how the rustlers are operating, and convince a rather dull-witted sheriff of the facts. The plot that follows has a few too many holes this time, but it does contain some decent action.There is a bit more singing here than you usually find in the early Rogers features. Mary Hart (Lynne Roberts) also appears as the heroine, though there is not a lot of help from the rest of the cast. All of Rogers's movies are watchable if you like Westerns, and this early feature certainly should not be evaluated too harshly, but it really is just an average effort.