I had the great pleasure of meeting Sunset Carson when he stopped at a gas station I was minding for my father in the mid-70s. He was friendly and gracious and talked with me for a while. He even got out his revolvers and let me put them on. When he left, he gave me an autographed picture.
Many young people have never even seen or held silver and gold coins! Nor taught in any public school that silver and gold is real money and everything else is credit. Great western!
Very enjoyable, nice little Western comedy!! I found that the Sunset character was very reminiscent of the Durango Kid character,without the mask,even had the white horse. Smiley's horse even has the ring around his eye! Thanks for the upload!!
How do you make the comparison between Sunset Carson and the Durango Kid, other than the white horse. The hero usually rode the white horse because in the long shot chase scenes, it was easier to see who the good guys were and the bad guys. Smiley;s horse had that ring around his eye because Smiley painted it with shoe polish. He referred to it as Ring Eye Nellie at Republic and Ring Eye at Columbia.
Thanks for this, Geno and Ralph. CALL OF THE ROCKIES is one I have not seen, and I love both Sunset and Smiley. Sunset had the amiable "aw shucks" quality much like Whip Wilson or Reb Russell, but he was a stronger and more charismatic screen presence than either of them. His SIX GUN HEROES tv show was very important in my own development and gave me a much deeper interest in B-westerns, which is still strong today.
I bet whatever row sparked off at the Republic Pictures function that got Mr. Carson dismissed from the company, Sunset whooped and set the sun on some tail! Tough hombre
According to several sources, including Yakima Canutt, Carson had shown up at a Republic party, drunk and in the company of an underage female. Herbert Yates of course told him he was fired...never mind that Yates, a married man, was chasing after Vera Hruba Ralston, who was several years younger. Carson had already been involved in some incidents that were embarrassing to his cowboy image.
In his first Republic picture, Sunset Carson is riding Silver, the horse used in the Lone Ranger serials and also ridden by Bob Livingston in the 3-M series following the Lone Ranger Rides Again. This horse was also ridden by Tom Tyler in the 3-M and other Republic cowboys. Carson did have a horse in his later films called Cactus but that horse was a lot heavier and didnt have the same kind of mane. Notice too that Sunset uses a bullwhip in his first few films, including Bells of Rosarita. However, he wasnt as good with it as Lash LaRue.
Tremendous amount of water gushing from that small mine, enough to water cattle & horses & farm amimals. But no indication of streams, rivers, lakes, ponds etc. Where are the farmers, growing food crops? Why are these miners dressed neatly & clean like freshly bathed Cow Pushers ?? This does not compute !
![CALL OF THE ROCKIES [1944] - Sunset Carson](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
