Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

JohnHowardReid Home in Oklahoma (available on a good Mill Creek DVD), is one of those murder mysteries you have when you're not having a murder mystery. It takes the average audience thirty seconds to tumble to the killers, but dumb, slow-brained, small-town newspaper editor Roy Rogers has to be prodded by breezily pugnacious Dale Evans. As you might expect from those opening sentences, there are not many spills or thrills in this one, even though it's directed by action specialist William Witney. Unfortunately, in stark contrast to the excellent work DVD companies have done for Gene Autry and Bill Boyd, Roy Rogers has been treated rather shabbily. Many of the titles on sale offer blurry, faded, out-of-focus pictures with garbled and/or muffled sound tracks. Even worse, the few Trucolor entries are presented in various shades of gray.

dougdoepke Sprightly Roy & Dale Western from Republic. It's a fine energetic cast livening up a familiar plot of keeping the ranch out of the clutches of the bad guys. Roy and Dale are reporters trying to out-scoop one another, and it's not hard to see why they stayed together as a team —their easy-going banter puts A-picture pizazz into a B-movie oater. Ditto, the great Gabby Hayes whose gruff comedy relief too often masked genuine acting talent. For example, scope out his versatility here. It's also well produced from Republic, with a lot of extras and even some location shots in the real Oklahoma (IMDB). That outdoor breakfast scene with all the local folks is charming. Of course there's the expected quota of action—a really rough fist-fight, some hard riding, and a pitched battle, all nicely paced by ace action director William Witney. Add vocals from the Sons of the Pioneers (I wish they had more) and you've got recipe for a really likable matinée Western. I guess my only negatives are the lack of good scenery and some rather poorly done process shots. Anyway, these are minor points. I'm just sorry these easy-going entertainments have ridden off into the proverbial sunset.

classicsoncall "Home in Oklahoma" finds Roy and Dale as rival newspaper reporters, he of the local Hereford Heaven Star, and Dale as Connie Edwards from the big city St. Louis Chronicle. I had a little trouble wrapping my head around the name of Roy's home town, could it really have been called Hereford Heaven? So I do a quick Google search and I'll be darned. There's a town in southern Oklahoma called Ada where they have an annual three day auction in the heart of Hereford heaven. The world record price for a prize bull this year was fifty one thousand dollars, only twenty one thousand more than the one in the picture. Not much inflation in prize bulls if you think about it considering the picture was made sixty four years ago.For a newspaper guy, Roy's considered the best scooper in the county, but I had to wonder if that depended on which end of the Hereford he was looking at. The bull in this picture is provided by the name challenged niece of the The Flying T Ranch, alternately called Jane, Jan and Jen throughout the story, at least to my ears. She's portrayed by Carol Hughes, looking an awful lot like Dale Evans, except Dale was blonde. By the time it's over, Jane comes close to capturing the title of most evil female villain in B Westerns, admitting to the murder of her uncle Sam Talbot, shooting undertaker Judnick in the back, and closing out the film by gunning down her partner Steve. But the worst of it was when she tried to kill the twelve year old orphan boy Duke (Lanny Rees) who inherited the ranch. That was one bad mama.Of course, Gabby Hayes is on hand as the ranch foreman hoping to keep his job following the death of Talbot. He has some fun at Dale's expense during the breakfast club initiation. Roy's regulars, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers are also around, handling a number of well placed songs including the title tune bookending the picture. Roy shares a duet with Dale in a lively little number called 'Miguelito'.What always gives me pause in these old Westerns is the way a lot of them approach the finale. The ending for this one is just a little insane if you stop and think about it. Jane's ranch hands are all gathered together in battle formation, and open fire as soon as Roy and his town crew come riding into view. I know it all made for good matinée viewing, but gee, were cowboys really settling their differences that way in the twentieth century? A couple of Roy's guys were mowed down in the charge and it seemed like just another day on the ranch.One last observation. Trigger usually got top billing with Roy in all their pictures, but this one made me curious. Sam Talbot's horse Major had more screen time here and helped out with solving the murder of his master. In effect, he had a bigger role in the story. Where was Trigger's agent on that one?

bkoganbing If Home In Oklahoma was located in the blue state east instead of the red state middle America, we might be talking about Tracy and Hepburn in the leads here.One of the things that always runs through Roy Rogers and Dale Evans's films is the battle of the sexes banter. In this film they are rival reporters, he for his local Oklahoma town paper and she for a big newspaper in St. Louis. They're both hot for a scoop involving the death of a local millionaire rancher. Of course this being a Roy Rogers western, he's also a cowboy. Hey, if Tracy and Hepburn could be rival lawyers in Adam's Rib, why can't Roy and Dale be rival reporters? Now don't expect the dialog to be on the level of Garson Kanin, but it ain't actually too bad.Home in Oklahoma boasts a very nice title song that Roy recorded and did well in the country/western market. Too bad Rodgers&Hammerstein already wrote a nice Oklahoma song or this one might be the state song for the Sooner State.