Young Buffalo Bill (1940)

Buffalo Bill, who bears virtually no relation to the real one, gets in a fight over mining lands in New Mexico. Indians besiege a Spanish rancho and the U.S. Cavalry rides to the rescue.

Director:

Joseph Kane

Writers:

Harrison Jacobs (screenplay), Robert Yost (screenplay),

Stars:

Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Pauline Moore

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Roy Rogers	...	Bill Cody
George 'Gabby' Hayes	...	Gabby Whittaker
Pauline Moore	...	Tonia Regas
Hugh Sothern	...	Don Regas
Chief Thundercloud	...	Akuna
Julian Rivero	...	Pancho
Trevor Bardette	...	Emelio Montez
Steve Pendleton	...	Jerry Calhoun (as Gaylord Pendleton)
Wade Boteler	...	Colonel Joseph Calhoun
Anna Demetrio	...	Elena
Estelita Zarco	...	Dolores

Storyline

It's 1860 and the old Spanish land grants are being surveyed. Montez is after part of Don Regas' rancho and gets the surveyor to alter the boundary. But Don Regas still has the original grant written on a bandanna. Montez sends Indians after it but Bill Cody and Gabby fight them off and a wounded Gabby unknowingly ends up with the missing million dollar deed wrapped around his arm for a bandage.

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Plot Keywords:

surveyor | cavalry | land grant | new mexico | 1860s | 

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 April 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

Buffalo Bill, Plainsman

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Republic Pictures (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

59 min 59 min (original) 54 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA High Fidelity Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Blow, Breeze, Blow"
(uncredited)
Written by Peter Tinturin
Performed by Roy Rogers (guitar and vocal)
Reprised by Rogers at the end

User Reviews

Buffalo Bill never sang as good as Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers is in the title role of Young Buffalo Bill and I doubt that for all of William F. Cody's accomplishments that he sang as pretty as Roy did.

Roy and sidekick Gabby Hayes, former army bugler are in New Mexico helping the government survey the land. That's an issue of deep concern to Hugh Sothern owner of a large ranch from the days his family got a Spanish land grant from the King of Spain 200 years earlier. It's a big concern to Sothern's granddaughter Pauline Moore for whom Young Buffalo Bill has taken an interest in.

Problems arise when the surveyor, young Steve Pendleton gets himself in some gambling debts and fakes the survey depriving Sothern of a section that contains a lost mine that the Comanches know about. So does Trevor Bardette, half brother to their chief, Chief Thundercloud.

All this intrigue leads up to a mighty fine shootout at the hacienda. That's the climax of the film.

Young Buffalo Bill is another in the long tradition of Hollywood B westerns where a real frontier legend is taken and a wholly fictitious story is written for them. As for Buffalo Bill the closest anyone ever got to telling his story for real is Buffalo Bill And The Indians with Paul Newman. At least this one doesn't pretend to be ground in reality.

And Roy does sing nice with a couple of cowboy ballads, something William F. Cody never did I'm sure.