Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

U.K. release title: TRANSCONTINENT EXPRESS. SYNOPSIS: The construction engineer of the Rock Island Railroad pushes the line west across the Mississippi in spite of financial complications, a treacherous steamboat tycoon, and hostile Indians. - Copyright Summary.NOTES: Dedicated to the men and women who devoted their lives to developing and perfecting the railroads of the U.S.A. The locomotives and period equipment used in the movie were loaned by Rock Island Lines, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society. Location scenes filmed in Oklahoma. COMMENT: Routine western made more palatable by a screenplay that has a slight but genuine leavening of wit. And any film with Bruce Cabot as the villain is necessarily one worth seeing. Bruce and Bruce's double have some fine fights with Tucker and Tucker's double, beginning with an outlandish duel with mops dipped in boiling soup. Unfortunately their climactic confrontation is disappointing. Though there's plenty of action at the climax, the script provides a thumbs down cop-out for the romantic triangle. Miss Mara is an uninteresting heroine anyway. Still, the support cast is loaded with familiar figures including Dick Elliott as a train conductor, Olin Howland as a barman with a bucket of water, James Flavin as a grumbling track-layer. The Jeff Corey episode is alone worth seeing the film. If only Kane's direction were not so flat and scrupulously uninteresting, if only Republic's production values (despite the use of actual locations and a real railroad and clever miniatures) were a little higher and relied less on such obvious cost-saving devices as phony backdrops and cycloramas and day for night photography. Even the color tends to be flat and uninteresting despite its warm brown hues and blue cloudy skies. Grant Withers is miscast as Mara's financier father, Chill Wills has his usual serio-comic role (nice scene with Jack Pennick as an eager trooper). Yes, the film has all the makings, including plenty of action, but doesn't quite make the higher grade.OTHER VIEWS: The script plays like a John Wayne/Vera Ralston/Albert Dekker reject that has been farmed out to Republic's second-stringers. Even in its boring triangle with Adrian Booth half-heartedly giving the charmless Adele Mara a run for the surly affections of frozen-faced Forrest Tucker, the movie is strictly a black and white affair: stolid hero, loyal comic sidekick, frilly girl, deep-dyed villain. The fights between hero and heavy form the best part of the action, culminating in a fair, if familiar, action climax. Whilst the color is variable and the direction totally dull, production values indicate a fair-sized budget. Vintage train buffs will enjoy the movie. So will fans of the Lydecker Brothers' realistic miniatures. - JHR writing as George Addson.

When a neighboring sheep rancher is found murdered on his property, by sheep-hating cattleman Gabby Whitaker, hostilities begin to heat up between the local factions. Cattleman Roy Rogers is quickly dispatched from the home office in Chicago to diffuse the situation and find the culprits. Evidence leads him to the sheep ranch where he joins forces with the murdered rancher's daughter Jill (Dale Evans)over the protests of her aunt, old battle-axe, cattle-hater, Cactus Kate (Elisabeth Risdon).Roll on Texas Moon is the first teaming of Roy and B-western great director William Witney. Over the course of the next 5 years Witney would change the style of the Roy Rogers' pictures from a musically oriented singing cowboy to the Action Cowboy Hero. After watching this one it's clear that Witney was really good at the latter, no so much with the former. Promising action sequences quickly give way to oddly selected and placed musical numbers. One musical interlude has Roy singing a lullaby to Gabby and the title tune, which is introduced in a Gabby dream sequence, has Dale dressed as Little Bo peep, making Betty Boop faces at Roy. The whole number seemed uncomfortably out of place. It should be noted that despite the inauspicious start, Witney righted the ship in their next film "Home in Oklahoma", a film very similar in substance and plot. While you can occasionally see in this movie what was eventually to come of the Roy Rogers / William Witney collaboration, Roll on Texas Moon wasn't one of the pair's better efforts. Recommended for die-hard Roy Rogers Fans only.

Roll On Texas Moon is a decent entry in the Roy Rogers film catalog. The film finds him trying to stop a feud between the cattlemen and the sheepmen from tearing apart the neighborhood just like the differences used to do in the Old West days.Roy's dad back in the day was big on getting rid of sheepmen by fair or foul means, but Roy has a live and let live attitude. So does Dale Evans who's aunt is Elizabeth Risdon, owner of a Sheep Ranch with the Old West name of Cactus Kate. She's more than a match for that grizzled old cattleman Gabby Hayes.What I liked most about Roll On Texas Moon was the reteaming of the antagonists Hayes and Risdon from the John Wayne classic Tall In The Saddle. That one is one of my favorite Wayne films and there is a running rivalry between Hayes and Risdon. Hayes is his usual grizzled, bearded self, but Risdon in that film plays an eastern woman accompanying her niece. Gabby deals with her in the usual Gabby fashion there. Here in Roll On Texas Moon, Risdon is more than a match for Gabby, though in the end it's hinted there might be a little senior citizen romance in the offing.Western fans especially B western aficionados will be somewhat taken aback by the presence of Dennis Hoey. The distinguished British actor best known for being Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, probably grabbed at his chance to be in a western and add it to his list of credits. The title song is a nice one, Roy recorded it back in the day and it suits him perfectly. So does this unpretentious B western from the factory owned by Herbert J. Yates known as Republic Pictures.

Roy Rogers (as Roy Rogers) has to mediate a "war" between the Sheep Herders and the Cattle Ranchers. George "Gabby" Hayes (as Gabby) is followed around by a Little Lamb. Dale Evans (as Jill) needs saving. Bob Nolan and the "Sons of the Pioneers" are around. After a promising, scenic opening, with Elisabeth Risdon effective (as Kate), the film falls apart… while the camera follows the Little Lamb… who is following Gabby... The title song is sung to the Lamb. The film includes Lamb Songs and a Mexican Jumping Bean Song. The highlight is when Evans' out-of-control car plunges into a river; after Rogers fishes her out, the duo sweetly sing "Be a Friend of Mine". ** Roll on Texas Moon (1946) William Witney ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Dale Evans