This is an unusual Roy Rogers flick for a number of reasons. Considering that so many B Westerns dealt with horse or cattle rustling, this one stands out because the bad guys were 'rustling' Christmas trees! That's right, but not only that, the foreman for one of the Christmas tree purveyors was 'rustling' trees from his own boss! Meanwhile, former silent film and B movie actor Jack Holt, who portrays himself, runs a tree farm for the benefit of folks who might not be able to afford one, so he's offering them at cost, which he mentioned would be about eighty cents!! The price gouging bad guys were going to charge ten bucks a pop!
Roy doesn't have a sidekick in this film, the closest he gets is a comic relief character named Splinters McGonigle, portrayed by Gordon Jones, who became a mainstay in a lot of the Abbot and Costello movies and TV series. Splinters has a sister, appropriately nicknamed Sis (Carol Nugent), who upstages her older brother every chance she gets. She's a pretty good shot on the skeet range too, so you don't want to get in her way, even as a pre-teen.
What really makes the story though, for me and countless Western movie fans, is the appearance in the latter part of the picture, of a handful of Roy's cowboy contemporaries who come to the aid of Jack Holt, who's injured during the story. You've got Rex Allen, Rocky Lane, and Monte Hale joining in the fun, along with some of Holt's older saddle pals like Kermit Maynard and Tom Keene. Georger Chesebro, who usually appeared as a villain, was snubbed by the group at first, until he explained he was there to help out his old buddy Jack, at which point they all welcomed him with handshakes and open arms. Chesebro pronounced his name when he introduced himself, which was a bonus for this viewer, because I never could figure out how to say it. The only thing that puzzled me with all the good guy help was why Jack Holt's son Tim didn't appear here. He already had a string of B Westerns under his belt by this time, so leaving him out was an obvious omission for fans like myself.
The other anomaly in the picture occurred when a clip from a silent film starring Jack Holt was shown titled "Dead Man's Gulch". If you check Holt's credits on IMDb, you won't find a title by that name, so you have to wonder why the film makers here wouldn't have used scenes from one of his actual film shorts. But then again, if you consider the story overall, you'd probably wonder why this one was called "Trail of Robin Hood"!
Roy doesn't have a sidekick in this film, the closest he gets is a comic relief character named Splinters McGonigle, portrayed by Gordon Jones, who became a mainstay in a lot of the Abbot and Costello movies and TV series. Splinters has a sister, appropriately nicknamed Sis (Carol Nugent), who upstages her older brother every chance she gets. She's a pretty good shot on the skeet range too, so you don't want to get in her way, even as a pre-teen.
What really makes the story though, for me and countless Western movie fans, is the appearance in the latter part of the picture, of a handful of Roy's cowboy contemporaries who come to the aid of Jack Holt, who's injured during the story. You've got Rex Allen, Rocky Lane, and Monte Hale joining in the fun, along with some of Holt's older saddle pals like Kermit Maynard and Tom Keene. Georger Chesebro, who usually appeared as a villain, was snubbed by the group at first, until he explained he was there to help out his old buddy Jack, at which point they all welcomed him with handshakes and open arms. Chesebro pronounced his name when he introduced himself, which was a bonus for this viewer, because I never could figure out how to say it. The only thing that puzzled me with all the good guy help was why Jack Holt's son Tim didn't appear here. He already had a string of B Westerns under his belt by this time, so leaving him out was an obvious omission for fans like myself.
The other anomaly in the picture occurred when a clip from a silent film starring Jack Holt was shown titled "Dead Man's Gulch". If you check Holt's credits on IMDb, you won't find a title by that name, so you have to wonder why the film makers here wouldn't have used scenes from one of his actual film shorts. But then again, if you consider the story overall, you'd probably wonder why this one was called "Trail of Robin Hood"!