Dudes Are Pretty People

Series: Streamliner

Director: Hal Roach Jr.

Producer: Fred Guiol, Hal Roach

Screenplay: Louis S. Kaye

Photography: Robert Pittack

Editor: Bert Jordan

Music: Edward Ward

Art director: Charles D. Hall

Sound: William Randall

Stars: Jimmy Rogers, Noah Beery Jr, Marjorie Woodworth, Paul Hurst, Marjorie Gateson, Russell Gleason, Grady Sutton

Company: United Artists

Released: 13 March 1942

Length: 5 reels

Production No.: F-42

Filming dates:

Rating: 1/10

Dudes Are Pretty People

Available on DVD:

Marjorie Woodworth and Noah Beery Jr. in Dudes Are Pretty People (1942)

Jimmy and Pidge are two cowboys on foot after having lost their horses in a poker game. They stop off at a ranch and enquire about becoming helping hands. Joe, the owner gives them the unwanted job of bringing in some Brahman bulls from the mountains. To everybody's surprise Jimmy and Pidge round the bulls up and bring them back to the ranch. Marcia, an attractive young lady rides over to the ranch on her horse having witnessed the heroics of the cowboys and is immediately taken with Pidge. She invites him over to the Dude ranch to meet her Aunt Elsie but Jimmy doesn't seem keen on the idea.
Jimmy and Pidge are introduced to Corrigan, the ranch owner and are applauded for their good work over supper. The next morning Pidge, who has become completely smitten with Marcia, has upped and left. It doesn't take Pidge long to figure out that Pidge is with Marcia on Miss Priddle's ranch. When Jimmy goes to look for him he meets Miss Priddle, who offers him a place to stay if he wants to work as a tenor. Naturally Jimmy bumps into Pidge and tells him he is there to save him from Marcia, who has earned herself a bad reputation with men. Dinner that evening is an awkward affair when Jimmy doesn't know the table etiquette but he redeems himself afterwards with a song for the guests at the camp fire, something he is reluctant to do. What the excited guests don't know is that Jimmy is assisted by a Mexican ranch hand who is doing the real singing and guitar playing from behind a large rock and that Jimmy is simply miming. After the performance however, Jimmy is exposed.

After a day's riding across the prairie Jimmy ends up in a pond and soaking wet. Fed up he suggests he and Pidge leave the ranch but is shocked to find Pidge is planning on getting married! Jimmy tries to talk his friend out of the idea and gives Pidge the low down on Marica. Later when Jimmy returns to their cabin he finds a note from Pidge telling him he has taken Jimmy's advice and left Marcia and headed for Nevada, where he hopes to meet up with him again soon. His absence is barely noticed before Pidge makes a prompt return. Jimmy is determined to keep Pidge and Marica apart and so he boards up the windows on their shack to give the impression of it being night time. Pidge buys it. But it's not enough; and Jimmy tries to convince Pidge he is sick and ought to stay in bed and places the burning tray from the fire under Pidge's bed to make him think he has a fever.
In the incredibly long scene that follows, Jimmy tries to keep Pidge in bed long enough so that Marcia can leave. But Pidge discovers Jimmy's plan and leaves. So Corrigan and the others devise a plan to get Jimmy back by staging a fake hold up at the ranch with Marcia and her followers. But things don't go quite to plan and Brad gives chase to Jimmy for real and tries to shoot him dead. Jimmy catches us with Pidge further down the track and together they witness Marcia put an end to the chase by kissing Brad and wanting to be taken away with him. Pidge finally sees what Jimmy has been trying to tell him all along: that Marcia was no good for him. The two men are reunited and their friendship is restored as they walk off together.

The End in Dudes Are Pretty People (1942)

Favourite bit
I'm sorry, but there just isn't one good scene, one good moment, one laugh or one interesting THING in the entirety of this film.

Trivia
• Copyrighted April 10, 1942.
• This was the eighth 'streamliner' film to be released by the studio.
• This film was the first film in a series of three; it was followed by Calaboose (1943), and Prairie Chickens (1943).
• In the opening scene when Jimmy and Pidge are walking down the dust track singing you can see the track marks on the ground left by the camera which was filming them.
• This was Grady Sutton's 17th film for Hal Roach and his first in ten years; it was also his last for the studio.

My opinion
• Someone, somewhere, at some point had the strange idea that this would make for an enjoyable film. I know it was the early 1940s, and there was a war on, and those at home needed to be entertained by something but this is an absolute slog. It's less than fifty minutes long but watching it felt like a week. It's okay if you like this sort of thing, which, by the way, I don't! Wow. Talk about an anaesthetic! I watched this film purely for review on this website and I can honestly tell you it was the first, last and only time I will ever intentionally look at it!

	Jimmy Rogers Jimmy
	Noah Beery Jr. Pidge Crosby
	Marjorie Woodworth Marcia
	Paul Hurst Two-Gun (chuck wagon cook)
	Marjorie Gateson Aunt Elsie
	Russell Gleason Brad Benton
	Grady Sutton George Peyton
	Sarah Edwards Miss Priddle
	Oscar O'Shea Corrigan, working ranch owner
	Joe Cunningham Joe
	Frank Moran Slim, cowhard
	Alberto Morin Mexican dude ranch hand/singer
	Jan Duggan Dude ranch guest
	Paul Fix Billy, cowhand
	Bob Gregory Frank, cowhand