- Directed by R.G. Springsteen
- Written by Earle Snell
- Starring
- Allan Lane
- Bobby Blake
- Martha Wentworth
- Ann Todd
- Gene Stutenroth
Eventually, after seventeen features in which he starred as comic book cowboy Red Ryder, “Wild” Bill Elliott decided to move on to other projects. His replacement for the next seven installments of the franchise was Allan Lane, an actor who had had some minor success as a romantic leading man before being shunted off to B-grade westerns. It’s quite a break for the character, especially since Red Ryder was as generic a western hero as possible, and thus ended up being pretty much defined by the actor playing him. Bill Elliott was a long tall drink of water, who drawled like it came naturally. Lane is still slender but much squarer through the shoulders, and with a little more of that stereotypical Hollywood pretty-boy twinkle in his eyes. Lane stopped over in the Red Ryder movies for seven installments before going on to roughly a bazillion features starring him as Marshall “Rocky” Lane. His most memorable success, though, came somewhat later, when be provided the voice for the character of a talking horse named “Mister Ed.”
“He may not look like Red Ryder, but he sure smells like Red Ryder!”
Lest the switch from Bill Elliott to Allan Lane shakes your faith in the rightful, Newtonian consistency of the universe, you’ll be relieved to know that li’l Bobby Blake is still riding right alongside Red Ryder as Little Beaver, as he had for nineteen previous installments, and would for three more hereafter. Little Beaver doesn’t seem to have noticed that his traveling companion has changed drastically; he just smiles and cheerfully butchers the English language as usual. Unfortunately, he plays an even less integral role in the plot this time out than is his habit; I was worried that if I didn’t mention him up front here, his name might not ever come up as I discuss the movie further.
In a move that shows Red’s continued lack of a clear career plan, he is this time part of a wagon train of settlers heading generally west, looking for open land in an unnamed state or territory that looks a lot like southern California. Most of the good land, they’re finding, is already spoken for, but there’s free acreage available in a place ahead called Paradise Valley. Unfortunately, the cheerily-named locale is said to bear the brunt of seasonal floodings and drought. It’s Red’s opinion that such they can make lemonade out of these problems, by damming the flood runoff and judiciously using the reservoir as a community resource. Just about everyone in the wagon train agrees with Red, the notable exception being Bill Hume (Gene Stutenroth), a blustery sort who wants to press on to further territories. When it’s put to a vote, though, Hume agrees to join Red in settling down in Paradise Valley.
Also defying explanation: how an explosion gets brushed off as a “strange accident.”
An indeterminate time later, Paradise Valley is a nice little town in the generic western model; how much of it was there before the most recent crop of settlers arrived is never mentioned. And Bill Hume is still a thorn in Red’s side, belittling his efforts to get a weekly newspaper started. But that ain’t the half of it. Hume’s diverting water to his farm at night, leaving less than enough for the other settlers. Yes, he’s one of those borderline sociopaths who feels he’s entitled to more than everyone else simply by virtue of who he is, especially when others don’t recognize his inherent rightness.
But that isn’t the worst of it. The next municipality over is Center City, a much larger burg which is starting to feel the crunch of its growth and is now looking covetously to Paradise Valley’s water. Newspaper magnate and general prince of commerce Blaine (Milton Kibee) wants to engineer a bond deal and bilk the homesteaders out of their water rights, and all he needs is an accomplice in the Paradise Valley community who can sow discord and paranoia enough for Blaine to look like a savior. Hmm, I think I know someone…
Okay, the guy on the far right obviously failed firearms safety…
Pretty soon, there’s a series of “accidents” in the valley: House fires, livestock deaths, coach holdups, and some major explosive breaks in the dam that leach off most of what’s needed for this year’s crops. Bill’s always front and center, proclaiming to anyone who will listen that none of this would have happened if they had listened to him. And when the Duchess – Oh, have I failed to mention her yet? She’s played this time out by Martha Wentworth (who’s almost a dead ringer for Alice Fleming, the actress we’re most familiar with), she was a part of the wagon train, and as usual, she’s loaded. She’s opened a general store, and as bad times hit their fellow settlers she’s started extending credit on extra-generous terms to tide them over, but naturally Bill twists that into Red and the Duchess trying to gather the reins for the whole community to gain economic power over them. No good deed goes unpunished.
“You betchum, Red Ryder! I like ALL my Red Ryders!”
Things come to a head when Blaine magnanimously rides in with a community-saving plan to incorporate the dam, with the homesteaders holding half the stock and he, the backer for a new dam, holding the other half. Desperate for security and half-accepting Bill Hume’s lies about Red’s ambitions, the homesteaders sign on the dotted line and bend over.
Naturally, there are further machinations and altercations as the schemes and their cover stories come to light, and the requisite fistfights along the way. Allan Lane loses some legitimacy as Red Ryder in my eyes for not giving his boilerplate “I’m a peaceable man” disclaimer before exchanging fisticuffs, but the movie on the whole gains some verisimilitude by focusing on one of those Western issues that still looms large: water. There were and are relatively few instances in which someone tries to force under a silver mine or run a robbery gang under the protection of a sheriff’s star, but water rights continue to be a make-or-break issue in the arid America West, and one for which both legal wrangling and threats of violence are entirely believable in a B-movie oater.
“Hey! You led last time!”
This is the last of the Red Ryder features I’ve got sitting on my shelf, so I’m glad that my abbreviated survey of the series doesn’t go out on a low note (though I wouldn’t call this entry typical in its story elements). I only hope that Red finally figures out what he wants to be when he grows up.
Some Notable Totables:
- body count: 4
- breasts: 0
- explosions: 1
- ominous thunderstorms: 0
- actors who’ve appeared on Star Trek: 0
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