Rainbow Over Texas (1946)

• Director
  • Frank McDonald
• Writers
  • Max Brand
  • Gerald Geraghty
• Stars
  • Roy Rogers
  • Trigger
  • George 'Gabby' Hayes

  Rainbow over Texas is set in a western never-never land, with vintage six-shooters and stagecoaches sharing screen time with modern limousines and radio studios. Roy Rogers (cast as "himself," as usual), plays a cowboy singing star who agrees to participate in a re-creation of the first Pony Express race. For reasons too numerous to mention here, the villains conspire to prevent Rogers from winning the race. Not only does Roy foil the bad guys, but he also finds time to sing several sprightly musical numbers with co-stars Dale Evans and The Sons of the Pioneers. And of course, there's always room for the comic interpolations of grizzled old Gabby Hayes. Two notes of interest: The principal villain in Rainbow over Texas is played by Sheldon Leonard, who would seem to be more at home in the mean streets of Brooklyn; and the screenplay was based on a novel by Max Brand, of Destry Rides Again fame.