Riders of Death Valley

With a cast of Western B movie royalty this was billed as "The million dollar serial." Its also an hour long programmer stretched to an ungodly length.

Dick Foran, Leo Castillo, Lon Chaney, Noah Beery Jr, Buck Jones and several others are brought together to tell the story of bunch of cowboys fighting to find and maintain a lost gold mine. Its a typical tale thats been told a thousand times before in an hour long movie, only this time its being told in way that lasts five times that. It doesn't need it.

To be honest the cast almost makes this worth watching, however the pacing and story line of the first 8 or 9 chapters is what I call the "40 years in the wilderness". Its a long haul where not much really happens. To be certain watching on a chapter by chapter basis this works better than trying to do it in one sitting, but at the same time the rewards beyond the great cast are minimal. Lets face it its just really dull.

For western fans or fans of the stars only.

The town of Panamint is being controlled by Kirby and Blake who are trying to drive out all the prospectors so they can obtain all their land, but are opposed by the Riders of Death Valley, a group led by Jim Benton opposed to the oppression caused by Kirby and Blake. An old prospector, Chuckawalla Charlie, leaves one half of a claim on a gold mine, The Lost Aztec, which is richer than any other mine discovered. The mine is shared also with Charlie's niece Mary, who goes searching for the mine (based on Charlie's map) with Jim and the rest of the riders. Blake sends Wolfe Reade and his outlaws to get the map giving the location of the mine, but after Jim, Mary, and the riders find it, Blake & Kirby get Wolfe to sabotage their efforts of getting the lode mined, smeltered, and assayed, while Kirby tries obtains the bank note Jim took out to pay for the work on the mine, while also framing Jim and Tombstone (fellow rider) of the murder of the banker. This "million dollar serial" is just advertising and nowhere near the effort Universal put into Flash Gordon, but for B western fans this serial is a treat. Foran makes a good hero, but I would have rather seen Buck Jones assume his role rather than be regulated to a sidekick. Blaine and Blue are okay as Kirby and Blake, but the screenplay could have just merged the two characters into one. Bickford is great as Wolfe playing the role with a nastiness that should be in every western and serial. The serial seems a bit too involved at times as well. Rating, based on serials, 7.

Back in 1918 Universal Studios gave the world the first feature film that cost over $1 million to make. That was BLIND HUSBANDS directed by Erich von Strohiem. It was 23 years later when Universal also made the first serial that cost $1 million. By this time the Laemmle's, Snr. and Jnr. were long gone and I wonder when Carl Laemmle the elder would have said about spending so much on a serial?

Well that is the movie I am here to-night to talk about. RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY stars Dick Foran, best known as a singing cowboy. He's backed up by Buck Jones (Edward D. Wood Jnr's fave cowboy actor, there's a bit of trivia for you!), Jean Brooks, Leo Carillo, Noah Beery Jnr. and Guinn "Big Boy" WIlliams. On the side of the bad guys there's Charles Bickford, Lon Chaney Jnr., James Blaine and Monte Blue.

This is a western serial with 4 staff writers working on it so you just know not a single cliché will be left untapped. Characters have names like "Tombstone", "Pancho", "Smokey", "Trigger", "Tex", "Borax Bill", "Cactus Pete" and "Chuckawalla Charlie". There's even a location called "Funeral Pass" (what, no "Deadman's Gulch"? How'd they miss THAT one?). Have I mentioned the plot yet? I haven't? Sorry!

James Blaine and Monte Blue want to run all the prospectors out of Death Valley and grab all their claims for next to nothing. To do they they enlist the help of "Wolf" (Charles Bickford) and his gang. Butch (Lon) is the second in command and just as quick on the trigger as his boss. The good guys are known as The Riders and they just happen to know the location of a lost Aztec gold mine with a fortune in ore. For 15 chapters Wolf and his gang try to get it and are constantly thwarted by the Riders. Complications include framing good guy Jim (Dick Foran) for murder, sabotaging mining equipment, stampedes, explosions, shootouts and LOTS of fistfights! Sadly the cliffhangers are not as good as the ones offered by rival serial makers Republic and Columbia. One example: Jim and Mary are about to be run over by a stampede at one chapter ending but in the next chapter we see the horses have miraculously all missed them! Another one, Jim and Tombstone are going into the mine on an elevator when a minor villain sabotages the cable and they plunge to the bottom. In the next chapter they simply are pulled up again and neither has so much as a bruise!

Charles Bickford had worked as a villain for Cecil B. DeMille in movies like DYNAMITE (1929) and the rarely seen THIS DAY AND AGE (1933) so he knew how to be a convincing bad guy. For Lon Jnr this movie came after MAN MADE MONSTER and before THE WOLFMAN and he was still hoping to get more leading man roles. Noah Beery Jnr does not have much to do in this one but he and Lon would work together again, this time on the same side in OVERLAND MAIL (1944). Monte Blue and also worked with Chaney in the Republic serial UNDERSEA KINGOM (1936).

So do I like this movie? YES! It may be predictable but thanks to so many great character actors and competent direction by serial vet Ford Beebe it is never dull.

This was my first western serial. I was seven years old in 1941.The thing I remember most was the chapter where Buck Jones knocks off the bad guys with a rifle while riding in a racing stagecoach. Our small town theater held special Saturday matinees that showed a feature, western, cartoon and serial chapter. It was mostly for kids like me.I don't recall too many adults there.This was also the year that my love affair for serials began. When I view it today, I find it has lost a lot of its charm. Charles Bickford and Lon Chaney Jr. made top notch bad guys. The location shooting and score are still exciting, but otherwise ,the fifteen chapters are pretty much standard for a serial that called itself " The million dollar serial". For old times sake, I rate it seven out of ten stars.

I'm not a fan of movie serials in general. I think it's an art form that has come and thankfully gone. Especially a western serial like this where Universal Pictures got an interesting name cast for Riders Of Death Valley.

The plot is one that could have been used for a good B western. Dick Foran and Buck Jones head the Riders Of Death Valley, a vigilante outfit formed because the law is ineffective against ruthless outlaws like Charles Bickford and Lon Chaney, Jr.

The whole serial is longer than Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments sound version and not nearly as good. The first part is Foran and company battling Bickford to locate a lost mine. The second part is Foran trying to work his mine and at the same time meet his financial obligations.

Through fifteen chapters Foran manages to survive, a landslide, a desert sandstorm, a mine accident, stampeding horses, and a framed murder charge. Just one is enough for any cowboy hero.

Serials were never meant to be viewed as I did on a DVD at home. 20 or so minute chapters every week back in the old days. But even at that I suspect they're no better.

With a length longer than a biblical spectacle, it must have taken Universal a long time and a big budget to film Riders Of Death Valley. It was a waste of time.