King of the Cowboys (1943)

The rodeo is coming to town, but Roy is summoned by the governor (Russell Hicks) on the charge of preventing an Arkansas sheriff from making an arrest. The bank robbers had crossed the state line, which ran down the middle of a tavern. Roy and Smiley Burnette had whipped them and dragged them across the white line to make sure that they would stand charges in their state, because their leader robbed his rodeo. The governor's job for Roy requires him to sever his connection with the rodeo, and report to the governor on a special phone. Roy's predecessor was shot while reporting over the phone. All he could way was, "Following Mary." The governor's secretary (Lloyd Corrigan) is the head of the sabotage gang, and Gerald Mohr is his main henchman.

Smiley gets a job cooking at a restaurant, and Peggy Moran hears Roy singing. (Roy Rogers really did have a beautiful, resonant tenor voice.) Moran works in a carnival. She and her girlfriend use the phrase, "Following Merry," meaning the Merrymakers carnival. Mohr is working as a mind reader in the carnival. Roy gets to perform when the crowd gets restless toward Mohr's act. He sings well enough to get a week's engagement with the show, and begins to unravel the operations of the gang. Back in the governor's office, manufacturers are complaining about the hijackings. Mohr and his boys take Roy on a trip after Moran supposedly stood him up on a date, but they are intending to kidnap him. He jumps out of the car and is knocked out. The crooks tie him up in a warehouse they are intending to blow up, but he gets the ax out of the fire emergency box and cuts himself loose - just in time. He then calls in the Sons of the Pioneers for help.  Burnette gets the text of an impressions Mohr sent, which indicates an address.

Roy and the Pioneers capture some of the gang, but Corrigan sets up an assassination of the governor by causing an accident to his car. Back at the carnival, Roy has Burnette substitute for the absent Mohr in the mind-reading act, while Mohr and his gang get loose and knock out Roy.  Mohr shoots one of his gang who is ready to confess, and sets it up to look like Roy did it. The governor is now in critical condition in the hospital. Moran and Burnette are the only ones to help him. They trick the jailor and break Roy out. In a slam-bang finish, Roy and the Pioneers capture Corrigan and Mohr. A supply train is set to be sabotaged on a bridge. Roy and Trigger race to help. Roy climbs the trestle in the midst of a gun fight. He makes it to the explosive just in time, despite being wounded.




Moran


Burnette