Overlooked Films: THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER (1981)

It's a bad sign when the lunch box looks better than the movie poster.

The Legend of the Lone Ranger left a bad taste in America’ collective memory, mine included. But hey, it’s been 33 years, so I figured it was time to give it another chance. My main question was - did it really deserve the bad rap? Or were our collective minds poisoned by the two pre-release disasters: 1) The studio’s decision to ban Clayton Moore from wearing the mask, and 2) Klinton Spilsbury’s unRanger-like behavior, getting into fights on set, showing up drunk for work and slapping a cocktail waitress.

Neither of our local library systems (which have dang near everything) had a copy of the film, and I sure has heck wasn’t going to buy it, so I watched it on YouTube. And for the first 56 minutes, I was mildly surprised. This doesn’t stink, I told myself. It’s not great, but it’s not as bad as I remembered. The worst things about it were the truly insipid theme song “The Man in the Mask” sung by Merle Haggard, and the amazing lack of acting ability displayed by Michael (Tonto) Horse.

Those first 56 minutes were the set-up. Like many first-in-a-projected-series masked hero movies, this one diddled around for over half the film with the origin story. It was all unnecessary, and it moved too slow (particularly when tries to break Silver in slow motion), but it didn’t really suck. Little did I know that would be the best part of the film.

At minute 57 Spilsbury finally put on the mask, the William Tell Overture fired up, and the movie began to suck. And it kept on sucking, harder and harder, until the thing was finally over. But though history has dumped most of the blame on poor Klint, it wasn’t his fault. It’s hard to complain about his acting, because - with his dialogue dubbed by actor James Keach - he did so little of it. What made the movie suck were the many bad decisions made by the producers.

So why was the last half of the film so bad? The reasons could probably fill a book, but here are a few of my main complaints.
    1) The William Tell Overture was used so clumsily as to defy belief. It was simply dropped in every time we were supposed to think the Ranger was doing something exciting. The sound quality was lousy - as if someone had recorded it from their TV - and sloppily edited to fit the brief action sequences. As a result, it just distracted from the action and made it look silly.
    2) The Ranger and Tonto have almost nothing to do. They ride around, walk around and slink around, saying little and accomplishing less while Butch Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) and his gang menaces and finally kidnaps President Grant (Jason Robards).
    3) For reasons unknown except to the toy franchisee, George Custer and Buffalo Bill are riding Grant’s train, and they have even less to do than LR and T. They’re unused until the very end, when they come riding in with the cavalry. This gives them a chance to wave.
    4) The climax is ridiculously overblown, probably hoping to compensate for the lack of action in the rest of the film. A single box of dynamite produces an unending string of explosions, sending villain after villain flying through the air. And even amid all the carnage, LR and T just scurry about trying to look busy until the cavalry arrives.

Klint, Mike, Butch & Geo. looking no less wooden than they do in the film. 

A note about YouTube: Don't go looking, because the movie is no longer there. Thanks no doubt to the studio that once lived up to the name Disney, YouTube removed it the afternoon of July 2, the day before the premier of the Depp debacle.

John Reid arrives from the East, intent on lawyering.

Tonto teaches him to survive in the West.

He finally dons the mask. The producers thought he looked good in it. Hm. 

The guys ride aimlessly about, listening to Wm. Tell. 

They stop to pose for a lobby card.

Jason Robards and Christopher Lloyd exchange unpleasantries.

Klint poses while everyone else fights.

Klint and Silver wonder how their movie went south.

More, and no doubt better (they couldn’t be much worse) Overlooked Films at Sweet Freedom. 

Next week: Jeez, not another Lone Ranger movie!! Yep, it's that thing from 2003. 

Overlooked Films: The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958)

I’m sorry I said unkind things about last week’s Overlooked Film, The Lone Ranger (1956) (that's HERE). I meant those things, of course, but I still regret having to say them. In case you missed that diatribe, my main complaint was that the film was one western movie cliché piled on top of another, reflecting badly on everyone's favorite Ranger, Clayton Moore.

So I was not looking forward to the sequel, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold. But I should have been. This one was fun, inventive, original and cliché-free, avoiding all the mistakes of its predecessor.

How? Here’s the secret: This movie is not really a western. It’s an adventure film with a western setting. The story would have played out just as well with Tarzan, Robin Hood or a noble pirate in the hero's seat.

The basic plot is this: A conniving widow is searching for a lost city. Her late husband spent his whole life searching and gathering evidence, but fell just short of finding it. Determined to cash in at last, the widow teams up with a killer and his gang of toughs. A map to the lost city was inscribed on a silver plate, which has since been broken into five medallions. The widow and the killer are hunting and killing the folks who have those medallions.

In this case, the lost city is one of the seven cities of Cibola, and the map/plate was made by Coronado’s men. The guys who now have the medallions are Indians. And the whole evil scheme would no doubt go off without a hitch if not for . . . not Tarzan, not Robin Hood, not Douglas Fairbanks Sr., but . . . The Lone Ranger (and Tonto).

Last time, I whined about Moore’s cheesy portrayal of the old prospector. This time, the prospector is absent, and the Ranger goes undercover as Bret Reagan, a Southern gentleman bounty hunter. Last time, Tonto suffered the ultimate snot-beating. This time, he takes only a couple of punches, and is later creased by a bullet. This film even sidesteps the Who-Was-That-Masked-Man schtick.

The Ranger's new, improved disguise.

A minor quibble: Early in the film we meet the town doctor, who, though dressed in city duds, is clearly an Indian. He looks even more like an Indian than the guys wearing war paint. But he’s been passing for years, and no one in the whole Indian-hating town suspects. Puh-lease.

Other that that, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold is a fine film. Makes me wish Moore and Silverheels had made another.

Check out the new theme, interwoven with The William Tell Overture throughout the film:

Tonto is rescued (after two punches) by the doctor. 

LR displays his calling card.

Our hero scolds the natives for using a bad guy for target practice.

The sick chief reveals who has the medallions.

Tonto punches out the evil sheriff and gets off with a headache.

The widow's head killer, a weasel 'til the end.

The weasel's end.

More Overlooked Films at Sweet Freedom.

Next Week: The Lone Ranger Rides Some More

Overlooked Films: THE LONE RANGER (1956)

If you have fond memories of the old TV series (and who doesn’t?) you’ll find this more of the same - only  in vivid color, and with a much bigger budget.

That’s a good thing, as far as it goes. To see LR and Tonto thundering across the prairie in living color is pretty dang impressive. All the scenes and sets, in fact, are impressive compared to the back-lot and indoor/outdoor stuff we saw on the series. The music is better, too. (Oddly, there’s a scene early in the film where the theme music from Maverick is playing in the background.) And it does star Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheerls, the guys who for many of us are the only real Ranger and Tonto.

But seen through the lens of time, the movie shows its age. Moore’s Ranger was always ultra-kid-friendly and generous with his big Pepsodent smile. In this film he smiles a lot, sometimes just at the camera, and the sweetness and light is almost overpowering. His depiction of the crotchety old prospector, amusing in small doses on TV, is used one time too many here, and the gag becomes corny. And remember Bill Cosby’s routine about Tonto always being sent to town to get the snot beat out of him? This movie features the ultimate in snot-beating, as Tonto is kicked around by a mob long enough for Scout to race way out into the desert and bring the Ranger to the rescue. Amazingly, our Faithful Indian Companion is none the worse for wear.

There’s nothing original here. We have white guys disguised as Indians to stir up trouble, we have a rich landowner scheming to take over the whole territory, we have a wife newly arrived from the East who can’t get used to these Western ways, we have a noble old Indian chief in danger of being nosed out by a hotheaded young upstart (nicely played by Michael Ansara) and we have Silver dragging a half-conscious Ranger to a waterhole. It all builds to a nice but brief climax involving dynamite, Indian warriors, bad guys, lawmen and the cavalry, ending - as you might expect - with LR going mano a mano with the baddest of the bad guys.  And, of course, the obligatory “Who was that Masked Man?” finish.

I suppose I’m nitpicking. There’s really nothing wrong with this movie. It’s harmless entertainment, and I’m glad it was made. But compared to Hi-Yo Silver, the abbreviated version of the first Lone Ranger serial (that’s HERE), this one seems flat and artificial.

See the lobby cards from this movie HERE.

More Thrilling Overlooked Films of Yesteryear at SWEET FREEDOM.

Overlooked Films: THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN (1939)

Last week, yapping about the first Lone Ranger serial, I told you it was a lost film, because when Republic lost the rights to the character they were forced to destroy all it’s prints. Well, insane as that was, the same thing happened to this second serial, released in 1939.

I haven’t seen any of this one, but by all accounts it was substantially inferior to the first. The first serial had been a great success with an unknown (Lee Purcell) in the lead, so Republic figured they’d score even bigger with an established cowboy star. The job went to Robert Livingston, already the veteran of 15 Three Mesquiteer films. Unfortunately, they thought he was too big a star to hide behind a mask, so he spent much of his screen time as the Ranger’s alter ego, a guy named Bill Williams. As Williams, he was even given some of the cliffhanger scenes that should have gone to the Ranger.

On these posters, you'll notice the Ranger wears the now-familiar opera mask. In the film, though, he wore the long, netted version shown on the lobby cards, as he did in the first serial.

The plot, apparently, was pretty standard homesteaders vs. cattlemen fare, with Bill Andrews/TLR coming down on the side of the nesters. His chief opposition is a gang of bullies called the Black Raiders. Chief Thunder-Cloud returned as Tonto, which was a plus, and the Ranger was given a second sidekick, Juan Valdez, played by future Cisco Kid Duncan Renaldo.

George Trendle, who controlled the character rights, had been unhappy with the Ranger’s unmasking at the end of the first serial. He was far less pleased to see his hero running around unmasked through most of this one. He did like Livingston, though, and tried to make a deal with Universal to make a third serial, with Livingston in the role. Republic balked, refusing to loan Livingston out, and the project was scrapped. Too bad.

A restored and reconstructed version of The Lone Ranger Rides Again is available from Serial Squadron. Though the original content is apparently more complete than their restoration of the first serial, visual quality is not quite as good, because they had to use a “paste-over” technique to remove Spanish subtitles. Still, if I was feeling flush (which I’m not) and had $24.95 (which I don’t) I’d probably order a copy. Click HERE and scroll down to find it..

For more amazing Overlooked Films, tune in each week at this time to Sweet Freedom.

Overlooked Films: THE LONE RANGER Serial (1938)

The 1938 Republic Serial The Lone Ranger, marking the Ranger’s first appearance on the movie screen, is officially a lost film. No complete version of it (at least in English) is known to exist.

Our heroes. Johnny Depp, er, I mean Chief Thunder-Cloud, and ??

But you hard-core Ranger fans have a couple of options. For a very few bucks, you can track down a copy of Republic’s 69-minute abridged version, released in 1940 as Hi-Yo Silver. For $24.95 plus postage, you can order a brand-new, nearly complete version of the 15-chapter serial on DVD from The Serial Squadron (that's HERE). Or for some indeterminate number of dollars inbetween you could probably acquire a less complete and less desirable serial recreation released ten or more years ago on VHS.

I’ve seen two of the three, and thought both were pretty dang good. The one I haven’t seen is the new DVD, because at $24.95 it’s about $20 over my DVD budget.

So why is this serial so rare? For some goofy reason, Republic was compelled to destroy their existing prints after their license on the character expired. For the same goofy reason, their follow-up serial The Lone Ranger Rides Again is also “lost.” Fortunately, a few mostly complete foreign language editions survived.

A 1938 gum card recreating a scene from the serial.

If that’s not crazy enough, the short version known as Hi-Yo Silver not only survived, but has since fallen into the public domain, and turns up on all sorts of cheapie collections. I found mine on Volume 37 of the Echo Bridge “Great American Western” series.

Fighting crime and injustice until they're blue in the face.

Though I can’t locate it at the moment, somewhere around here I have that almost-sorta-complete but kinda-funky VHS version, which I remember fondly. The main drawback to that one, as I recall, was that many scenes had to be cropped and enlarged to hide the foreign language subtitles. There were also some sound issues, with portions of the music recreated with a tinny-sounding synthesizer, and several scenes redubbed using amateur “actors” because the original soundtrack was missing. This version, I hear, has since been repackaged as a cheapie Mill Creek DVD, though I’ve never seen it for sale. BUT, despite those drawbacks, the story was there - and the action - and seeing the first Lone Ranger on screen was very, very cool.

Unable to re-view that VHS version, I popped Hi-Yo Silver into the DVD player and got a pleasant surprise. It, too, is a pretty good movie. The story is somewhat choppy, as you’d expect when nearly five hours of story is crammed into 69 minutes, but most of the really important stuff is there, and the sound and picture quality is great. Several of the cliffhanger sequences made the cut, so you get a lot more thrills than in the average feature-length oater. And the central story from the serial comes through pretty well.

Another 1938 gum card.

The story takes place in Texas just after the Civil War, as the federal government sends a man to head up the reclamation of lands. Despite being a carpetbagger, he’s a good man. Trouble is, he is promptly murdered and an outlaw takes his place. When a troop of Texas Rangers ride to investigate, they’re ambushed (substituting here for the Cavendish gang), and all but one die - one who just happens to be discovered by Tonto - and you know the rest.

The maybe-Rangers. 

Top to bottom: George Letz, Lee Powell, Herman Brix, Hal Taliaferro, Lane Chandler. 

The big idea behind the serial, and Hi-Yo too, was to present viewers with five possible Rangers. These five guys wear identical shirts, hats and scarves, keeping the bad guys (and the audience) guessing as to which one actually donned the mask and went galloping around on Silver. It was a good gimmick, adding an extra element of mystery to an otherwise ordinary serial adventure. As the derring-do rolls on, the maybe-Rangers perish one-by-one, in dramatic fashion, until only the true Ranger is left. And in the final scene, just before riding off into the sunset with Tonto, he unmasks. It's all nicely done, and great fun. If the new Depp-Hammer version is as good as this, I'll be satisfied.

More Overlooked Films, as usual, at SWEET FREEDOM.