![]() ![]() I guess we were supposed to overlook the fact that the masked man was dragged over on his wounded arm, which should have sent him to the moon in pain. With the Ranger's good arm hooked into a stirrup, Silver dragged him over to a water hole until Tonto could come by. Silver also got some commendable screen time making the save for the Ranger when he got shot in the left arm by one of the bad guys. One thing you have to do with this film is give proper credit to Silver and Scout, both horses did an admirable job with some dramatic footwork coming down rocky hillsides. So introducing the concept was simply a head scratcher for this viewer. ![]() There are a handful of scenes referring to Pilgrim Crossing as the site of an 1854 massacre which was a bit puzzling since the location marker was never explained, and if it had to do with the original Lone Ranger story, it remained a moot point. Fans of the TV series will recognize Clayton Moore underneath the old prospector disguise whenever he goes undercover trying to learn new information. Kilgore has a hot headed foreman named Cassidy (Robert Wilke), who turns out to be a fiery enemy of the local Indian tribe and puts a number of henchmen to work disguised as Indians in a familiar ruse in any number of Westerns whereby their destructive raids are blamed on the local tribe. The story here has the Ranger and Tonto trying to find out what's really going on in the town of Brasada as local rancher Reece Kilgore (Lyle Bettger) seems to be defying statehood for the territory against the wishes of the territorial governor (Charles Meredith). ![]() It's easier just to take Tonto's word for it. There's also the explanation of Kemo Sabay translated as 'trusty scout', though attempting to understand the origin of that translation is an interesting exercise in detective work. For viewers unfamiliar with the origin of The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore), his friend and sidekick Tonto (Jay Silverheels) does a nice job explaining it by telling the story of the box canyon ambush and how Silver was nursed back to health by the Ranger following a fight with a buffalo. The bonus for movie fans watching today is that it was done in WarnerColor, though the color rendition varies in scene to scene from rather drab to quite brightly saturated given the type of scene. It aired in 1956 which would have placed it just before the TV series ended on June 6th, 1957 with the last half hour episode. For someone who's either seen or been aware of all the various Lone Ranger movies including the early serials, I was caught off guard by the presentation of this story on Turner Classics the other night. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |