The Trucolor Roy Rogers films were really mistreated by Republic Pictures, cut to a TV-friendly 54 minutes from a running time of around 67-75 minutes. And, of course, they were printed black and white. Republic cut the original negatives and tossed the “scraps,” so the story goes — making uncut, color prints of these films a real scarcity.
With Springtime In The Sierras (1947), Film Chest worked from rare, complete 16mm material. The results, I’ve heard from reliable sources, are quite nice. (I grew up watching Roy in 16mm — to me, that’s how he’s supposed to look!) Normally, I’d wait to review this since it’s already available, but a recent post proved what a hot topic these films are, so why not a plug?
I have the new Film Chest edition of, Springtime in the Sierras, plus a collector copy and the Alpha edition which appears to be the same restoration, and came out earlier in Feb 2012.
Compared to the collector copy, both the Film Chest and Alpha versions are visual upgrades. The restoration removed black vertical lines, flipping frames, white streaks and scratches, corrected and balanced the color, even removing a green tint, and lightening up some dark spots.
The Film Chest version even goes a little further in tightening up transition scenes and possibly removing damaged flip frames, resulting in a slightly shorter runtime showing on the counter: 73:40 minutes vs 74:50 for both the Alpha and the collector copy. I don’t believe any actual story, music, or action is missing.
The restoration has a cleaner looking colorful picture, but since the source print, judging by the collector copy, was soft it is still not as good looking as the licenced Republic/Artisan/Lion’s Gate releases of, Bells of Coronado on DVD and Sunset in the West on VHS.
I am glad I bought all three versions. It is fun to compare the different editions. Plus it’s a good Rogers post-war movie, full of good music, brutal fist-fights, and plently of shooting and riding.
The Film Chest edition also has a nice extra: A 1961 episode of The Chevy Show, hosted by Roy and Dale. It is a 59 minute black and white print of a NBC color broadcast with original Chevy commercials.
Thank you for the excellent summary of the print differences. You went the extra step of buying the Film Chest version too, I only bought the collector’s version and more recently the Alpha version. I haven’t received the Alpha version yet, but I too was going to compare them, but your comparison of all three was even more thorough. Thanks Again.
Yesterday I ordered the Republic/Artisian VHS tapes of the color Roy movies, Trigger Jr., Golden Stallion, North of the Great Divide, Twilight In The Sierras & Down Dakota Way. When they arrive I’ll record them onto DVD in the fastest speed so I’ll hopefully wind up with excellent DVD versions of these. I currently have the Happy Trails Theater versions of these, but the films themselves were all edited. So these tapes should be a great improvement. I can’t believe they are not already out commercially in DVD.
Now the Holy Grail of color Roy movies that no one seems to have are these 6 which I can’t find:
Apache Rose
On Old Spanish Trail
Eyes of Texas
Night Time In Nevada
Grand Canyon Trail
Far Frontier
Have you seen these or are they all lost?
I have never seen those first six Trucolors in color. The uncut black and white versions are around in varying quality.
APACHE ROSE 75 min. on DVD from Roan.
ON THE OLD SPANISH TRAILl 74:36 min on an Alpha DVD double feature with a 53 min version of Ridin’ Down the Canyon.
EYES OF TEXAS 70 min. and GRAND CANYON TRAIL 66:29 min on an Alpha DVD double feature.
NIGHT TIME IN NEVADA 66:34 min. on Sinister Cinema VHS
THE FAR FRONTIER, uncut B&W version, I have ordered but not received from cometwesterns.com, along with uncut Cowboy and the Senorita, and Roy’s last five uncut black and white movies. Comet has all the available uncut Roy Rogers. I also ordered Randolph Scott uncut and in color in Fighting Man of the Plains and Sugarfoot. I had the Spanish B&W DVD of Fighting Man, and collector B&W retitled Sugarfoot.
The Roan Group Apache Rose was done after my dad sold the business. I haven’t seen it, but it is indeed uncut.
I’ve had nothing but good luck with Comet Westerns.
Yes, the 6 “Holy Grail” of Roy films I listed are one’s that I have never seen in COLOR, that was my point. I already have them in b/w from various commercial releases. But I’d like to have COLOR versions, THAT is what I have not been able to find, the color versions. If you know where color versions are, then I’d really like to know. Comet, I believe, only has b/w versions of these 6 Roy movies, correct me if I’m wrong.
As for Fighting Man of Plains, I thought I’d get a color version from TCM recently when they showed it, but no, it was b/w. Disappointed. But if you say Comet has a color version, I will definitely check them. As I recall I had checked last year and they only had it in b/w. But maybe they’ve got a color version now?
I just checked Comet, and they do not have color versions of these 6 Roy films. If anyone can find a color version of any of these:
Apache Rose
On Old Spanish Trail
Eyes of Texas
Night Time In Nevada
Grand Canyon Trail
Far Frontier
Let me know. They seem to be hidden in an attic somewhere.
I figured you had the B&W versions of those six, only posted in case other readers might be interested in some sources for the uncut versions of the B&W versions in case they had cut versions.
Comet has Fighting Man of The Plains listed as, (c), color in their online western catalog. I ordered it and a bunch of Rogers titles about four weeks ago but have not received my order yet. If Fighting Man turns out to be in black and white I guess I’ll have to ask for a refund, unless it turns out to be better than the Spanish release which was in B&W and had some missing sound problems.
I have read that Republic made 200-300 release prints for the Trucolors originally. It’s hard to believe they were all destroyed. I am hoping that they are all in the Paramount vault somewhere and will show up sometime.
I bet those 6 exist in color somewhere too. Though with each day that goes by they will deteriorate a little more unless something is done. Let’s hope that they are found and made public. It seems incredible that they have not been put out for sale already.
As for the color version of “Fighting Man of Plains” I see Comet does have a “(c)” next to it which I also assume it means it’s in color. But why has it taken them 4 weeks to get it to you? That’s a long wait. If you get it in, let me know, I don’t want to order if they take that long. I’m still waiting for that French DVD release of “7th Cavalry” that I ordered from Amazon.es on 6/27, so it’s been almost 3 weeks wait now. I ordered it from Amazon as the seller thinking they would be more reliable than an individual seller in Spain. I will have to be more patient, they now tell me it should arrive by 7/26.
I ordered THE BOUNTY HUNTER from Amazon Spain and that took a long time to come and it turned out that it was shipped from Amazon Germany!
Yipe! I ordered it from Am.es so as not to get the subtitle version you get when you order it from Am.germany. I hope I get the right one. Guess it’s basically a crap shoot what you get when you order from International sources.
Oop, I meant when you order from Am.fr, not Am.germany. Sure wish there was a way of editing after posting.
I received my order from Comet, today, and Fighting Man of the Plains was in color! It was a dark print, with a green age tint. Daytime scenes were OK but the night time scenes were hard to see. I am generally pleased with it.
My order took a long time, because it was a large order and Mr. Comet’s wife was recuperating from surgery.
Comet’s original poster case art is teriffic. I spot checked the uncut Rogers titles I bought and was very pleased with them.
That’s great news, the first I’ve heard of a color version of “Fighting Man…” Was this a “Trucolor” film? Maybe that’s why the blues and geen tint. I still have not received my Sidonis “7th Cavalry” from amazon.es. They told me to write them if it isn’t here by 7/26, so I just emailed them today to tell them nothing’s arrived. So I’m still in suspense. I did get all the color VHS Roy movies in that I ordered from Republic tapes that are not available on DVD. I’ve transferred 2 of them over to DVD so far, I’m putting on the Happy Trails intro before the movie and the Happy Trails outro after the movie, so now these will be complete versions of the color movies with the Happy Trails in & outros. I even put the Roy Rogers promo Republic ad that the tape has in the Happy Trails intro, Roy & Dale say, “we’ll be right back” and I insert the Republic Roy ad there. Then it’s back to the intro. again. These will be nice when they’re all done. I give myself projects like this. The colorized version of “Dark Command” looked great, so I transferred that to DVD some time back.
Johnny, FIGHTING MAN OF THE PLAINS, was the Cinecolor 2-color process which operated a little differently than Republic’s 2 and later 3 color Trucolor process. But maybe these 2 color processes do degrade in a way that makes them greener. That SPRINGTIME IN THE SIERRAS restoration was able to get take out the green.
But, at least, we do know what Cinecolor and Trucolor look like “new”, when we look at THE NEVADAN MOD and the SUNSET IN THE WEST VHS. The ALBUQUERQUE DVD was also a nice looking restored Cinecolor.
I have a recommendation for your Roy Rogers project. If you don’t
have it, the Republic Home Video VHS of Roy’s, RAINBOW OVER TEXAS is uncut and very nice looking in original black and white.
I have the Happy Trails version of Rainbow Over Texas, which means it’s probably edited. Although the Happy Trails DVD of “Sunset Serenade” was uncut, so you can’t always be sure that they’re all edit versions. I’m not home right now, so I can’t check, but I believe “Albuquerque” was released commercially in color on DVD, but as I recall, the DVD lists it as in b/w, but it’s really in color. I’m just going my my sieve like memory here.
No, memory’s wrong, it was Scott’s “Stranger Wore A Gun” that’s listed as b/w on the DVD cover, but it’s actually in color.
Saw a couple of good westerns this past Saturday. Howard Duff in “Sierra Stranger” & Rory Calhoun in “Black Spurs”. The Duff movie was a great ’50′s western, only negative was that it was in b/w. It had a twist in the movie when you discover the good guy the town hated really was a bad guy after all and the town was right to hate him! That was a twist. “Black Spurs” was filled with great old stars, Lon Chaney, Linda Darnell, Bruce Cabot, Jai (from the Tarzan TV show) and others. Cory is a guy who comes to town and everyone there seems to hate him too. What’s with these towns?
Well the day finally arrived. I got in the Sidonis version of “7th Cavalry” in yesterday! I have good news and bad news. First the good news, the picture is absolutely beautiful, wonderful color, bright and clear, in short perfect. This proves one thing for sure, that a beautiful print of this movie does indeed exist in the Columbia vaults somewhere. Now the bad news, I could not, no matter how I tried get rid of the subtitles. Even when I went into the DVD options and chose “No subtitles” as the option, it still displayed the subtitles. Now for the glass is 1/2 full news, the subtitles are very small and not too noticeable, it could be fairly easy to ignore. So while the subtitles do show, they are pretty subtle, they’re not a big bright white or yellow, they’re more like a small tannish yellow color, blends in nicely with the picture. I have never seen such a beautiful looking “7th Cavalry”, I thought it didn’t exist, well I’s here to tell you it do.