a5c7b9f00b The last of the "Frontier-era" films starring Roy Rogers. From this point forward through the last of the Roy Rogers' film at Republic, the time period was always the "modern west", or the mythical version of such. The exception to all of his remaining films not being set in a historical period was in "Heldorado" that contained a flashback segment. Here, Roy plays a dual role of the title character, Jesse James (<a href=">Roy Rogers), and an identical look-alike gambler, Clint Burns (<a href=">Roy Rogers). In order to blacken the name of Jesse James, who is aiding the homesteaders and farmers in their fight against a land-grabbing scheme by the agents of a railroad, Burns is hired to impersonate Jesse. The scheme is successful at first with all but Jesse's old friend, Sheriff "Gabby" Whittaker (<a href=">George 'Gabby' Hayes), and a newspaper reporter, Polly Morgan (<a href=">Gale Storm), who can distinguish the two men intuitively. Jesse ends that problem by taking out Burns, who had been impersonating him, and then he impersonates Burns in order to get to the root of the problem. When Jesse learns that Krager is cheating settlers, he and his gang rob trains to obtain money for them to purchase their land. Krager, finding a Jesse look alike in Burns, hires him to wreck havoc on the ranchers. When Jesse kills Burns he switches clothes and goes after the culprits. In the days before he was permanently playing himself in stories of the modern west, Roy Rogers played a number of real western characters and in Jesse James At Bay he plays the title role. And we learn the 'true' story that being that Jesse was not shot in the back by Bob Ford.<br/><br/>When a couple of sharp crooks played by Pierre Watkin and Hal Taliaferro cheat a bunch of honest ranchers and farmers out of their spreads, sheriff Gabby Hayes on the Q.T. sends for Jesse who's been lying quiet in Nebraska and out of the reach of Missouri law enforcement. Of course this does present an ethical problem for Gabby as he is the sheriff and he is sending for a wanted outlaw.<br/><br/>But not to be outdone Watkin and Taliaferro use a gambler named Clint Burns also played by Roy Rogers to sully Jesse's image as a Robin Hood. Nevertheless Gabby and Roy as Jesse get on to the scheme and turn it to their advantage quite cleverly.<br/><br/>Roy does quite well in the dual role although later on I doubt his public would have tolerated a villainous Roy Rogers. Roy and Gabby have to contend with a pair of reporters played by Sally Payne and Gale Storm who want the 'real' story.<br/><br/>As what was said in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 'print the legend'. When a crooked banker/railroad man attempts to swindle some farmers, Sheriff Gabby Hayes sends word to his old friend Jesse James (Roy Rogers), who robs the banks and railroads in order to make things right. The villain retaliates by hiring Jesse's slack-jawed double (Rogers again) to make trouble in order to discredit James.<br/><br/>Jesse James At Bay is a typical but okay vehicle for Roy, who's pretty good at playing the heavy, though he gets to sing only once during the movie and then only a few verses.<br/><br/>This is Roger's second time playing double in a movie, the first time being as Billy the kid and Billy's good-guy replacement in 1938's Billy The Kid Returns and the third being 1942's Sunset On The Desert.
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