Showing posts with label Lone Ranger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lone Ranger. Show all posts

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Dynamic Duos in Classic Film Blogathon: LONE RANGER & TONTO "Part 1"

The first movie appearance of the Lone Ranger and Tonto...
...might not qualify as a "Dynamic Duo in Classic Film" entry...
...since it features five Lone Rangers!
Let me explain...
Republic Pictures did a movie serial in 1938 based on the already-legendary radio show.
However, Republic was notorious for using the comics and radio shows they based their serials on more as inspirations than adaptations, playing fast-and-loose with the concepts and characters, sometimes keeping little more than the name and costume.
In this case, while the idea of the Lone Ranger being the sole survivor of a massacre is kept, there are five different Texas Rangers (none of whom are named John Reid) who are now working together to solve this case!
And none of them will admit to being the sole survivor of a massacre!
But only one can be the Lone Ranger!
Which one?
Only Tonto (Chief Thundercloud) knows, because the only times we see him on screen is when the Ranger is in costume...
...and the Lone Ranger wears that odd mask that covers his entire face, making it impossible for the audience to deduce which Texas Ranger he is!
The serial has a "whack-a-mole" feel as one-by-one the Rangers are trapped and killed until only two remain.
One dies at the end of the penultimate chapter, and, while it's shown the Lone Ranger survives until the end, he's not unmasked until the end of the serial and we discover which one he is.
The owners of the character were so pissed at how the Ranger was portayed they ordered all prints and the negative of the serial destroyed!
The current versions on video are composited from prints sent overseas.
And look, you can see it for yourself...

(The current versions on video are composited from prints sent overseas.)
However, Republic's contract gave them the option to do a second serial if the first one did a certain level of box-office sales.
It did very well, so Republic went ahead with a second serial a year later, but since the original Ranger, Lee Powell, was in trouble with both the movie studio and radio show for making personal appearances as the Lone Ranger (see poster above), he was replaced by Robert Livingston as the Ranger, now disguised as "Bill Andrews".
Chief Thundercloud (Victor Daniels who was half-Native American) returned as Tonto.
It was a typical Western serial, well-done, but not really as good as the first Ranger production.
But then, you can judge for yourself, here...

When next the greatest duo in Western fiction appeared on the big screen, it was in the form of the definitive Lone Ranger and Tonto from the small screen, as you'll see at our "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, later today!
And see many, many other "Dynamic Duos in Classic Film" at this LINK to the blogathon participants!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Reading Room: LONE RANGER THE MOVIE Part 4

The Lone Ranger and Tonto have become enmeshed in a plot involving a rich rancher who wants to move an Indian reservation off land that includes a mountain sacred to the First Americans.
But the rancher, Kilgore, is doing everything he can to incite the local settlers to take up arms and attack the Indians, including inciting race hatred!
Returning to town, The Ranger and Tonto again run into a band of "Indians" who display very un-Indian characteristics...
Can The Lone Ranger and Tonto stop a potential massacre?
Why does Kilgore want Spirit Mountain?
The Saga Continues 
TOMORROW...at
The only blog devoted to Western comic books!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Reading Room: LONE RANGER THE MOVIE Part 3

Part 1 appeared HERE and Part 2 appeared HERE
When Last We Left Our Heroes...
The Lone Ranger and Tonto save a man being attacked by Indians who, in fact, aren't Indians!
The attacks tie in with plans by local rancher Reece Kilgore to force the local Native Americans off their reservation so he can acquire their land, including Spirit Mountain.
Why?
Now, Kilgore is secretly shipping in a load of high explosives.
Why?
The Ranger and Tonto plan to find out...
(BTW, Part 1 appeared HERE and Part 2 appeared HERE, in our "brother" blog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™.  You didn't miss anything.)
Art by Tom Gill and Joe Sinnott.

Have Red Hawk and his braves "gone on the warpath"?
Or is something else going on here?
Same Blog Time!
Same Blog Feed!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Hi, Ho, Rudolph...Away!

There's more to keeping peace and providing justice for all on the wild frontier than just shooting an owlhoot who's trying to kill innocents!
Sometimes, it's filling in for Santa Claus and providing a much needed Christmas tree and a few presents to some lonely souls on the prairie on a moonlit Christmas Eve...
Why not join the Lone Ranger, Green Lama, Edison Bell: Boy Inventor, SuperSnipe and others at our Christmas in the Comics™ virtual storefront, where good cheer and cool, vintage graphics adorn greeting cards, ornaments, mugs, hoodies, and other seasonal stuff?
But order now! The Lone Ranger can't deliver to everybody, you know!