Susanna Pass (1949) User Reviews

Roy rounds up more land swindlers

[kentbartholomew · 7/10 · 1 June 2004]

Pretty good Roy Rogers. Bad guy newspaperman played by Robert Emmett Keane is out to take over his brother's (Lucien Littlefield) fish hatchery to cash in on the oilfield below the lake. Recently escaped convict Del Roberts (perennial bad guy Douglas Fowley) gloms on to the shakedown and wants a cut of the action. Roy and Doc Parker (Dale Evans) find themselves in the middle of the chicanery. Murder and mayhem ensues.

This has better than average songs performed by Roy and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage as well as Roy Rogers' regular Estelita Rodriguez. "Brush Those Tears From Your Eyes", and tile tune "Susanna Pass" are particularly good.

It seems that Roy's movies could be divided into three categories. The early films directed by Joseph Kane which had a grittier feel, the middle musical Lallapalooza's, and the later action oriented films directed by William Witney. To me the best are the later films by Witney. Almost all of the Witney films feature lavish exteriors and better than average scripts. Susanna Pass is no exception. Filmed in "TruColor" it is a cut above the average B-Western. While Roy has always been considered a B-Movie star the truth is is, his later Westerns could really be considered A minus.

Good songs, good action, Roy at the top of his game. Definitely worth a watch.

Oil Versus Fish

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 8 November 2007]

I do have to wonder whether in these days of terrorism and the fluctuating oil market, a film like Susanna Pass could be made today and just who the villain is.

Roy Rogers is a fish and game warden for the state of California and he weighs in with his good offices in a fight between two brothers, Robert Emmett Keane and Lucien Littlefield, one bad and one good.

Bad brother is newspaper editor Keane who's a rich guy looking to get richer. And that would be at the expense of good brother Lucien Littlefield who's got a piece of land on which he's created an artificial lake and uses it as a fish hatchery. He's assisted in this worthy endeavor by Dale Evans who is an ichthyologist.

But there's oil under that lake, black gold, Texas tea as that old TV theme used to say. Keane is in cahoots with escaped convict Douglas Fowley to get that land by fair means or foul, mostly foul.

Later on a different view of the oil situation and drilling underwater would be voiced in the Anthony Mann/James Stewart film, Thunder Bay.

I'm willing to bet that former president Herbert Hoover who was a serious fresh water fisherman would have endorsed this film. I'll bet he saw it when out and loved it. Especially with that valedictory that Roy gives about the youth of America getting out in the fresh air and enjoying fishing as our forefathers did. Hoover was also a founder and spokesperson for the Boys Clubs of America as well.

Hopefully that oil is still under that lake in Susanna Pass so we can get it out when needed in a pinch.

'B' Western NOIR (?) in TRUCOLOR!

[xerses13 · 6/10 · 25 February 2010]

If there is such a thing as a ROY ROGERS 'Noir Western' then SUSANNA PASS (1949) is it. Not because it was literally in a dark style because it is a brightly shot in TRUCOLOR, but that its themes were the darkess of any ROGERS film I have ever seen.

The plot features very modern concepts. The exploitation of the Earths natural resources versus their preservation and use for future generations. This time it is OIL against a natural habitat used to raise FISH and provide a experimental research center. Two (2) Brothers are on opposite sides on this matter. MARTIN MASTERS (Robert Emit Keane) wants that 'Black Gold', RUSSELL MASTERS (Lucien Littlefield) aided by KAY 'Doc' PARKER (Dale Evans) nature and research. MARTIN is assisted by escaped convict ROBERTS (Douglas Fowley) with 'Henchmen' VINCE (David Sharpe). Nothing is going to stop these Men including murder. Enter ROY ROGERS and his sidekicks who eventually bring to justice the guilty and preserve the wild. There is more too it then that, so watch the movie.

The film has several interesting features. It is filmed in TRUCOLOR a development of a early two (2) strip color process in competition with TECHNICOLOR. So GREEN is the dominant color. This was used almost exclusively by REPUBLIC PICTURES. The 'Comedy Relief' and singing are kept to a minimum compared to the typical 'Oater' of the time. Dale Evans when not in her work clothes looks very 'chic' is some 'New Look' Dior Fashions. At the end of the picture ROY rides off and 'Doc' PARKER (Dale) goes back to her research. What NO romance, yes, their relationship in this film is strictly platonic, BUMMER!

For rabid Rogers' fans!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 14 June 2014]

A passable western. I take that back. If you like mildly pleasant songs, and Miss Rodriguez occasionally shooting off her mouth, and Mr. Garralaga's mildly tedious attempts at comic relief, plus a bit of mild action against some mildly attractive background scenery, you'll enjoy Susanna Pass. True, for the rest of us, there are some rousing bits of stunt-work from Dave Sharpe (who has an on-screen role as well), but Douglas Fowley overplays the heavy and the climax seems somewhat short on action. Nonetheless, there is a fair brawl between Rogers's obvious stuntman and Sharpe at Keane's newspaper office. However, the best stunt has Sharpe doubling for Rogers transferring himself from a less noble steed to Trigger in mid-gallop during the final chase. Miss Evans, here making a return to the series, has a lively enough role, though she is none too attractively photographed. On the whole, this entry stacks up as pretty fair entertainment if your expectations are not too high — and you're a rabid Rogers fan.

Far less western than a usual Roy Rogers flick.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 24 October 2020]

The version of "Susanna Pass" was, fortunately, the complete film. Many of Roy Rogers' films were hacked to pieces to make them fit television time slots...and fortunately this one is intact. It also is in TruColor...a color process that is NOT true color. Instead of the more expensive Three-Color Technicolor, TruColor and Cinecolor were much cheaper alternatives. So why didn't most films use TruColor or CInecolor since they cost about as much as black & white film? Well, both are two-color processes....made up of blends of orange-red and green-blue....and create a limited color palate. Additionally, both systems tended to fade or become very orangy or muddy over time....and so the copy of "Susanna Pass" is, not surprisingly, very faded and offers a print that looks more brown or sepia.

The story begins with a couple prisoners who have escaped from prison. The meaner one decides to go it alone....and he takes out his 'friend'. Obviously, this guy is seriously kindness-impaired! And soon, he goes into business with a local newspaper man...a man who is also seriously kindness-impaired as well!

This is a very unusual Roy Rogers film. Of course there's the escaped prisoner, but the film also features Roy as a game warden and is all about a reservoir filled with fish from a local fish hatchery! Additionally, instead of the usual sidekicks like Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine, this one features two Mexican-Americans as comic relief (they are NOT particularly welcome). And, Dale plays an ichthyologist...a woman with a doctorate in fish! All in all, a rather strange collection of plot points...and a film less like a western and more like a crime film. In fact, aside from the cowboy hats, there really isn't much western about this one. This isn't a complaint....just an observation about the usual story.

So is it any good? Yes. While it's far from great, I do appreciate the change of pace and much about the story is original. Well worth seeing.

Cattle? Sheep? Nope! This time Roy saves a bunch of fish!

[stevehaynie · 6/10 · 1 April 2007]

The later Roy Rogers movies tended to have a conservation and education message. In the case of Susanna Pass the plot is built around a feud between two brothers with differing ideas on how a piece of land should be used. One brother wants to use the land for a fish hatchery while the other wants to drain the lake and drill for oil. Roy's movies were strong in their message to carefully manage wildlife for hunting and fishing, and some of what is said in Susanna Pass would easily fit into a short film on raising fish for recreational and commercial fishing.

Russell Masters (Lucien Littlefield) who seeks to make life better for everyone with a fish hatchery. He is joined by Doc Parker (Dale Evans) in his venture. Dale Evans was always feisty toward any villain and usually kept Roy in check whenever he became mischievous. This time around she pulls no punches, literally speaking, because she plays the part of a marine! As far fetched as it may sound for tiny Dale, she is dead serious and no-nonsense in her role.

Newspaperman Martin Masters (Robert Emmett Keane) has to find a way to ruin the fish hatchery and eliminate his brother so that he may take the oil from underneath the lake. He and his hired thugs nearly succeed, but when facing Roy Rogers and a marine the task becomes difficult.

Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage were doing their own western adventures on their radio program, so they certainly were no strangers to acting. While they do get to partake of the action in Susanna Pass, they just do not have the flair of the Sons of the Pioneers. Perhaps it is because they were not as comfortable on screen, or it may be a nostalgia for seeing Roy with his original group.

There is a different feel to the polished production of Roy's last years of B westerns. In some ways it takes away from the "shoot 'em up" aspect that was so much fun, but it establishes a strong sense of right and wrong. Roy was no longer the cowboy who did good deeds; he had a purpose that was made clear to everyone.

"In English it means..., get out!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 27 March 2022]

Roy uses a little reverse psychology in the picture when he arrests Doc Parker (Dale Evans) for the murder of her boss, and almost immediately lets her know it was a ruse to flush out the real killer of fish hatchery owner Russell Masters (Lucien Littlefield). The villains here include Masters' brother Martin (Robert Emmett Keane) and escaped convict Roberts using an alias (Douglas Fowley), who have designs on taking over the hatchery because there's a lot of oil underneath the lake that's being used to raise trout from hatchlings. There's a neat little tutorial offered by Dale's character about midway that explains the process of fertilizing the trout eggs, having them hatch, and the care and feeding afterward until they're ready to be released to the wild. Once he solves the case of the brother's murder, Roy offers Doc Parker his best wishes for her to carry on the work of the hatchery so that future generations of sportsmen can enjoy fishing in the great outdoors, a message that would have been timely with the advancement of America's march into the 1950's and beyond.

When I pulled this title up on Tubi TV, it was offered like many of Roy's later flicks as part of Roy and Dale's Happy Trails Theater. They usually had a guest on hand from the movie that was about to be shown, but they strayed from that formula for this film by having Gene Autry and Pat Buttram as guests! Most of their conversation had to do with their movie and TV sidekicks, and as far as I can tell, they didn't miss a single one. That was worth seeing as much as the picture!

I hope the lake doesn't spring a leak between the oil and the water. That would definitely affect the fish.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 23 August 2022]

Made in the rather grainy true color, this modern western crime drama has some truly great visuals that aren't affected by the blurry photography. Roy Rogers is up against land grabbers who wants to purchase the land surrounding a lake so they can get a hold of the oil, and of course that would affect the fishing industry in the area, and they're willing to commit murder to get it.

You actually get an environmental lesson of the value of the lake as it is, with a female expert explaining the value of the lake the way it is. While the film is listed at 67 minutes, the print I found is an edited television version clocking in at 52. The villain is Robert Emmett Keane, out to defraud his brother, Lucien Littlefield. Dale Evans is the environmental expert who joins forces with Roy to find out whose responsible for the murder after she's accused. A unique outdoorsy film, unique as a western simply because it said outdoors in the west and doesn't have all the usual Western trappings.

Roy Arrests Dale Twice And Jumps On The Wrong Horse

[boblipton · 7/10 · 30 July 2023]

Forest ranger Roy Rogers finds the wagon the two escaped prisoners used, but not the pirsoners. Little does he know that Douglas Fowley has knifed Robert Bice, and left him for dead. Fowley also goes into partnership with Bice's uncle, Robert Emmet Keane, who had framed Bice. It seems that Keane's brother, Lucien Littlefield owns a lake that he is using as a trout hatchery for the state, with Dale Evans, ex-marine and ichthyologist, working for him Fowley and Keane confirm there is at least $2,000,000 worth of oil beneath the lake. And Keane is his brother's heir.

It's a pretty good story that pauses occasionally to offer a lecture on what goes on in a fish hatchery, Roy nursing Bullet or chatting with Jimmy the Crow, or a song. They're pretty good this time around, with Estelita Rodriguez singing and being the comic this time around. Roy arrests Dale twice, and Trigger demonstrates that he's not only the smartest horse in the movies, he's smarter than Roy.

Roy and Dale as 1949 feminists

[bruce-barrett-662-807730 · 8/10 · 15 February 2010]

I love the movie, and especially Dale's character, "Doc" Parker, the Ph.D.-toting, martial-arts trained ex-Marine who only needs Roy because he's got the guitar! By 1949, we think "Rosie the Riveter" and other women were uniformly back in the kitchen, but boys and girls were watching this. No wonder the girls wanted to grow up to be women, not drudges! The film makers' seriousness about such issues is shown by the extended sequence in which Doc explains the hatchery's operations to Roy. This portrays her, not as some kind of oddity, but as an informed, highly educated woman in an instructive, not subordinate, relationship with Roy. Meanwhile, his interest is romantic, sure, but he is also clearly "teachable" and interested, not cowed or mocking regarding her leadership.

Enjoyable, action-packed western (if too brisk for its own good)

[I_Ailurophile · 8/10 · 10 November 2022]

I can't say that I'm especially familiar with the films of Roy Rogers, but this strikes me as an especially briskly paced, busy movie. There's a lot of plot here, and many little details rounding out scenes and characters, and it's thrown at us unexpectedly fast. Bad guys! Fishing! Dynamite! Murder! Etcetera! Hand in hand with the abundance of content and speed, it seems to me like there's more emphasis on action thrills here than is true of other westerns, not least from a star known for singing in his pictures. Such sequences and stunts likewise swiftly fly in our face, fostering a sense of vigor that's bolstered by the boisterous score. For all this, 'Susanna Pass' readily impresses a little for how soundly crafted it is, and entertaining, despite the tenor that in many other instances has served to reduce such value.

Stuffed to its one-hour gills with plot, excitement, and dashes of humor, this is unquestionably light on its feet. Maybe too much so for its own good, in fact, as there are times when the connective threads between scenes are story beats are a little lacking; this is a western built for minor thrills, not storytelling judiciousness. That spirit also extends to the ending that's dreadfully ham-handed, and weirdly out of sorts with the tone the feature has otherwise maintained. While 'Susanna Pass' does a fine job already with maintaining a vigorous spirit and keeping viewers engaged, it may have benefited from slightly more mindful writing, direction, and editing, and more specifically from being more drawn out so as to let each moment manifest, breathe, and resolve more naturally.

Such matters don't severely detract from the viewing experience, however, and far more so than not this is a good bit of fun. In addition to the stunts and action scenes, any effects are done well, and the sets and costume design are solid as per contemporary westerns. If marginally troubled as it presents, the plot is written well such as it is, if kind of generic. (Excise the western details and the story and characters could be adapted to basically any TV show ever made.) When all is said and done this is pretty well made, if imperfect, and enjoyable. Anyone who doesn't already appreciate westerns won't find anything here to change their minds, but for a quick, no-frills slice of cinema, 'Susanna Pass' is a good way to occupy one's time.

Roy takes on a group of oil thieves

[helpless_dancer · 8/10 · 9 March 2000]

An escaped convict and an evil newspaper owner attempt to take over another man's property to mine the oil they know lies beneath a lake. They stop short of nothing to do this including murder. Lots of action, gunplay, and good western songs.