Ken Maynard Ken Baxter Fay McKenzie Letty Morgan Ralph Peters (I) Panhandle Directed by Sam Newfield (I)
European archaeologists who are also agents for a foreign power, use
an ancient site to smuggle helium - the inert gas used in airships,
to their contacts across the US border, the gas being piped from an
underground cave which US agent Ken Maynard discovers during his
investigations.
Ken Maynard screen career started ih 1923 and ended in 1944, he was Universal Films top cowboy in the early 1930s, and during his career appeared in at least 120 movies. 'Death Rides The Range' was made during his slide down the ratings, and is probably typical of the B westerns being made at the time.
Just as well known as Ken Maynard is his mount 'Tarzan' who does a neat trick in this film of freeing him when he is bound head and foot by ropes when captured by the villain. In keeping with the times, Maynard also had a couple of 'sidekicks', and also ends up getting the girl.
Pretty corny stuff today, but don't forget you have to see this in the light of when it was made when cer- tain lines of dialogue were perfectly acceptable.
At the end of the
film, when Maynard has captured the crooks, and is explaining to the
assembled participants he concludes by saying 'Well ... you all know
the rest'.
As this 2 reeler has been reduced from the original running time of 58 minutes, its difficult to judge wether some of the stilted dialogue and odd close-ups are a result of the re-editing, or were like that in the 58 minute version.
The print quality is superb, and taken from t he very best 35mm master available and Roy Hubbard and his team at Ranks have done a first class job producing the prints.
Made at a time when the cinema audience was a great deal less sophisticated
and innocent than those today, it is worth having at least one
of these films in your collection - wether you take them at face
value or have a quiet chuckle at the contents.
There are a few 'bumps and bangs' on the track, so to those of you that write to me and complain about every little click in a film, you have to accept these as part of the ' atmosphere' of these films.
Collectors of 'B' westerns will welcome Derann releasing this (and others) item. Derann continue to release a wide range of films that seem to include something for everybody. Well done Derann.
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Distributed in the UK by: Derann
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The above review was printed in Super Eight Film Review issue
12
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This page was last updated 02 Dec 2002
