This film has the distinction of the first pairing of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans--but Dale is only a supporting character. It's also a bit unusual because Roy's sidekick is played by Guinn Williams. Now Williams almost always played dumb but lovable sidekicks but not with Rogers--with whom you'd expect Gabby Hayes. This isn't a bad thing, but oddly Williams practically disappeared from the film in the second half.The film begins with Roy and Guinn wandering into town and being arrested on suspicion of kidnapping! Well the audience knows they'd never do that and soon the supposed victim (a spunky teenage girl named Chip) turns up just fine. It seems that she had disappeared to go to visit her father's old mine--one that is supposedly worthless but she knows there is some secret hidden there for her. In the meantime, a supposedly nice guy is trying to get the family to sell this mine to him--and Chip suspects his motives are far from pure. So, it's up to Roy and Guinn to help determine what the secret is and if this nice guy is actually all that nice.As far as the story goes, it is a pretty typical Roy Rogers film. He plays a social worker, of sorts, that shows up in town and rights all the wrongs. It's predictable but nice and worth watching--even if the kid 'knows' the man is bad but has absolutely no reason to think this (she'd obviously read the script to see the ending). The only seriously bad moment came at the end when, for absolutely no reason, they have a crazy song and dance number. Crazy because it's not your typical Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers song but one that looks more like what you'd see in an over the top musical. The ENORMOUS sombrero and the rest of the set is laughable--especially since it's supposed to be a western, not a visit to the Coconut Grove or the 21 Club! Weird.

"Cowboy and the Senorita" is the very first screen pairing of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and it comes across surprisingly well. The film title is also the name of the opening and closing musical number, and even if not meant to be prophetic, the eventual marriage of Roy and Dale proved to be a wonderful union for film goers and fans of the Western duo.The story involves a missing runaway Chip Williams (Mary Lee), who is revealed to be Ysobel Martinez' (Dale Evans) half sister. Chip needs to find out what her deceased father left her in a box buried in an abandoned mine on the Martinez property. The mine is soon to be sold to Ysobel's fiancé Craig Allen (John Hubbard), and that should give you an idea where the story is headed. Allen and his henchmen have already begun excavating the mine for it's hoard of gold, while busily setting about to frame Roy and his sidekick Teddy Bear (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) for Chip's disappearance, and later for the theft of two thousand dollars from his personal office safe.To be sure, there are manufactured elements that defy coincidence in the story; Chip discovers her father's missing treasure on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the day on which her father specified it should be opened. In a letter accompanying the discovered box, it states that a bracelet she already owns (and lost, conveniently found by Roy and Teddy Bear) is her only inheritance, but she should examine it closely for the treasure to reveal itself. Bad guy Craig Allen, Ysobel's fiancé furiously denies his complicity in any cover-up scheme. In an interesting response by Roy, the film's date is put into historical perspective - there's enough gold in the assayer's office to make Allen the biggest liar in 40 states!Since most of Roy's films offer Gabby Hayes or Andy Devine as the comedic sidekick, it's a refreshing change of pace to see Guinn "Big Boy" Williams in that capacity here. The clumsy Williams spends a lot of his time falling down, but he also has a highlight line in the film; when Craig Allen's henchman Ferguson wavers in admitting their role in the mine cover-up, Big Boy offers to "take him to the memory room".The film ends on a quite lavish musical number that starts out with dancers circling a huge sombrero. It's a fitting end to an engaging story, with Roy's arms clasped around not one, but two pretty senoritas - Dale Evans and Mary Lee.

This is a pretty good Roy Rogers feature, with an interesting and rather involved story, plus Dale Evans, Mary Lee, and some variety entertainment. The story has Roy and his sidekick (played this time by Big Boy Williams) befriending a young woman who is looking for a hidden mine, and trying to protect her interests from the shifty Allen, who meanwhile is working to discredit Roy. Quite a bit happens after that, and there are a lot of interesting developments even after devoting a good amount of the running time to songs and musical numbers. It works pretty well, and should satisfy any of Rogers's fans.

Hi again, Any movie Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are in is a treat for me. This film was very early in their career, 1944. Just a bunch of fun including the Sons of the Pioneers and Mary Lee. Thanks for listening. Florence