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Pat
Brady, Outlaw (The Roy Rogers Show)
Date released: 1952
Directed by: Robert
G. Walker
Starring: Roy
Rogers, Dale Evans, Pat Brady, John Douchette
Alfalfa portrays: Elmer
Kirby, a mild-mannered photographer who gets mixed up with some
tough cowboys.
Alfalfa's screen time: 7:07
Lines of dialogue spoken by Alfalfa:
57
"Pat
Brady, Outlaw" and images © Shokus Video
Roy
Rogers, Dale Evans, and their zany ranch hand Pat Brady have just
completed a wild stagecoach shoot-out with the Opal Gang, which have
managed to escape Rogers and elude justice for the time being. As
Pat Brady emerges from the Relay Station, he is accosted by a meek-looking,
bespectacled photographer, played by Alfalfa.
Alfalfa: Hey mister, just a minute,
mister...would you do me a big favor? I'm Elmer Kirby and I'm out
here from the East, and I'm awful anxious to get a picture of a stagecoach
holdup.
Pat Brady: Well, you just missed one! If you'd have been with
us you coulda' taken a picture of the whole Opal Gang!
Alfalfa: Yeah, yeah, I know, but
we could pretend we're takin' one if you'd be willing to pose as one
of the outlaws.
Brady: Me?!
Alfalfa: Sure! You've got just
the face for it, you'd be a lot better than they would. No kiddin'!
Brady: I have?
Alfalfa: Sure...
Brady: Well, shucks...
Alfalfa: And it won't take a minute,
I'd be terribly obliged. You see, I want the picture for my album.
Brady: Well, alright...
 
Alfalfa
poses Pat in front of the stagecoach while he scurries back under
the camera tripod.
Alfalfa: Now put the mask on,
Mr. Brady, like you were one of the real outlaws...could you move
just a little closer to the coach, Mr. Brady please?
Brady: Hey Elmer, how about me pulling this thing down a
little, like this? [pulls down neckerchief from around his mouth].
Alfalfa: Yeah, that's fine!
Now Mr. Brady, could you please flourish your gun?
Brady: Do what?
Alfalfa: Pull it out...
Brady: Oh...well, I could look like I was shootin' from the
hip...or maybe I could pretend like I was fannin' it, huh? How's
that, Elmer?
Alfalfa: Oh, that's fine, that's
fine...now I uh...[comes out from behind camera to join Brady] I
thought if you didn't mind, that I could kinda grab your hand here
sorta, like I was tryin' to take the gun away from ya'.
Brady: Hey, I thought you said this was gonna be my
picture!
Alfalfa: Well, it is, my back
is practically to the camera, and I'd look like I was supposed to
disarmin' ya'.
Brady: Oh, I see—is this for your album, too?
Alfalfa: No, it's for my mother,
she thinks I'm silly and can't take care of myself.
Brady
[looking Alfalfa up and down]: Well, she's got somethin'
there...
Alfalfa (as Elmer Kirby) then takes the resulting
picture of his wrestling the gun from Pat Brady, and boastfully
passes it off at a nearby saloon as a genuine picture of him subduing
a member of the Opal Gang. Just then, the real Opal Gang walks in
the saloon and one of them tells the barkeep that he should take
the picture and bring it to the authorities for a reward. Accordingly,
Pat Brady gets mistakenly fingered as one of the Opal Gang, and
soon has a lynch mob after him; Roy and Dale have to save Brady
from a dose of frontier justice.
Meanwhile, Alfalfa is abducted by the real Opal Gang, who want to
make him a kind of official photographer. After rescuing Pat Brady,
Roy and Dale find the Opal Gang's hideout, and with Alfalfa's help
(sort of) they all administer a sound thrashing to the Opals.
After order is restored, Alfalfa takes his
camera and moves on to his next adventure. As he leaves town, he
is seen off by Roy and Dale.
Roy: So long, Elmer.
Dale: You be careful from now on.
Roy: ...and don't take any more of those trick pictures.
Alfalfa: I won't, Mr. Rogers,
I learned my lesson the hard way!
Roy: You know, trying to be what we're not sometimes gets
us into trouble.
Alfalfa: Well...g'bye.
Alfalfa's appearance in "Pat Brady, Outlaw"
was partly the result of his close association with Roy Rogers.
Alfalfa trained Roy's hunting dogs, and the two became so close
that Roy agreed to stand as godfather to Alfalfa's only child, a
son, from his brief marriage to a woman from Kansas City named Dian
Collingwood. 4alfalfa.com contacted the Roy Rogers Museum to see
if there was any information on the Alfalfa/Roy Rogers relationship
available. The curator of the museum apologetically informed us
that there was no direct information on file or on exhibit concerning
Alfalfa, but he did confirm that Roy Rogers was "very fond"
of Alfalfa.
He does a very nice job in this appearance,
which is strictly comedic (Alfalfa would appear in another Roy Rogers
Show episode, "The Kid With the Map",
which was more of a dramatic role.) Wearing horn-rimmed glasses
and a suit and hat, he has little trouble convincing the gullible
Brady that he wants pictures "'for his album". But we
soon discover that Alfalfa, as "Elmer the Great" (as he
bills himself) wants to drum up additional business by claiming
the picture with Brady was really taken during a confrontation with
the Opal Gang. He gets more than he bargained for when the real
Opal Gang shows up and hauls him to their hideout, where they try
to turn him into their court photographer (it is not known exactly
why a holdup gang would be so eager to have their pictures taken,
but we quibble.) During the climactic fight scene, Alfalfa pitches
in as best he can, leaping onto the back of one of the Opal Gang,
and letting rip with a couple of potent punches when needed.
Alfalfa
does an uncanny impersonation of David Byrne...
It is not difficult to envision this type
of role becoming Alfalfa's stock and trade if he had a longer career.
As we mention in other parts of this site, we frankly don't understand
why Alfalfa couldn't secure more acting roles than he did. His appearance
here is certainly equal, and we think superior, to any number of
similar roles seen on shows during the era.
Alfalfa's
name rolls by in the closing credits as Roy and
Dale favor us
with "Happy Trails".
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