In the final days of the Civil War, young Bill Hickock (Roy Rogers) is sent by the War Department to deliver a shipment of gold for the Union cause. Acting as a decoy, he sends the gold with Gabby Hayes and Hayes' sidekick Calamity Jane (!), hoping to outsmart the European backed saboteurs that want to take it.Not so wild this time around, Young Bill Hickock's bland script takes too much time getting started and doesn't really generate much excitement or great music. This Republic Picture does have some decent production values though.Astonishingly, the script veers into JFK style conspiracy theories near the end, with European powers using John Wilkes Booth as a pawn in order to divide the US again, in order to gain control of the west! However, it's still not enough to make this really worth recommending, except for maybe the most die-hard Roy Rogers fans.The best thing in the movie is the feisty performance by Sally Payne as Calamity Jane. She's pretty cute and does a good job.

Roy Rogers stars as "Young Bill Hickok", saving California and its gold from wicked invaders like John Miljan (as Nicholas Tower)… against a Civil War back-story… with references to Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. This time George "Gabby" Hayes brings along his niece, none other than Calamity Jane (well played by Sally Payne) to assist Mr. Rogers. It's an interesting team-up concept, however unlikely.The film's highlight is its posse / stagecoach chase scene, near the film's end. Rogers and Yakima Canutt -- I assume the stuntman is the stunning Mr. Canutt -- perform well in an exciting man-under-the-stage sequence. That sequence followed one of the typical Rogers songs. Otherwise, this is nothing more than a fair Rogers western. *** Young Bill Hickok (1940) Joseph Kane ~ Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Sally Payne

In the beginning of his career, Roy Rogers actually played characters other than people named Roy Rogers. Here he's Wild Bill Hickok who foils a dastardly plot hatched by an unnamed foreign country to detach the west coast from the union by fomenting outlaw trouble during the Civil War.John Miljan is the villain here, performing in the best Snidely Whiplash tradition. He's only the west coast top guy, he does receive instructions from the east, Roy finds a letter addressed to Miljan signed by John Wilkes Booth. Amazing Miljan was able to keep a straight face through the whole procedure.Actually amazing that Roy kept a straight face too. Gabby Hayes is around to lend Roy a helping hand and actress Sally Payne as Calamity Jane is the best thing here. Her performance is remarkably similar to the one given by Doris Day in another 14 years.This film is not unusual in that it was in a tradition at the time with B Westerns to take famous names in history and create wholly fictional plots around them. That's a tradition I'm glad we've stopped.

"Young Bill Hickok" freely uses the names of historical figures to tell a formulaic story of adventure in the closing days of the Civil War. Roy Rogers portrays Wild Bill, earning his name after he wards off a band of Morrell's Overland Raiders singlehandedly. The central story involves the shipment of gold to help finance the Union's war effort, while foreign agent Nicholas Tower (John Miljan) attempts to disrupt the enterprise, enlisting the aid of seedy John Morrell (Wally Wales as Hal Taliaferro). On the side of the good guys are crusty Gabby Whitaker (George "Gabby" Hayes) and Calamity Jane Canary (Sally Payne). Jacqueline Wells provides the love interest for Hickok, and her presence sets up some tension in the film, first as a Southern lady and Confederate sympathizer, and also as Hickok's bride to be who must take a back seat to his duty to help the Union cause.Before the film is over, the Civil War has ended with Lee's surrender, and the news of Lincoln's assassination arrives. Tower's association with John Wilkes Booth was established midway through the film as Hickok discovers a letter signed by Booth in Tower's office. The inclusion of these historical snippets adds some interest to the proceedings, but ultimately have no affect on the main story itself. Generally Roy Rogers portrayed himself or a character named Roy Rogers in his films, but as in this movie, he occasionally was cast as a legendary Westerner. For more of this type of fare, try "Billy the Kid Returns", "Young Buffalo Bill", or "Jesse James at Bay".