Under California Stars

Opening with a brief look at Republic Pictures' back lot in Studio City, CA, this average Roy Rogers songfest settles down to weightier matters after Roy returns to the old homestead to perform a radio broadcast. Peace and quiet, however, are rudely interrupted when someone kidnaps the cowboy ...more

Director William Witney's stamp is all over Under California Stars, including a prolonged and quite brutal fistfight between Roy Rogers and House Peters, Jr. The climactic shoot-out is also more potent than was usually the case in family-oriented B-Western fare, what with one villain killing the other before being felled by Roy. All of which, of course, don't amount to a hill of beans in today's climate but the small fry of 1948 must have had a field day. In contrast to his fine action ...more