Frontier Fugitives

Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien and Guy Wilkerson are once again The Texas Rangers both in occupation and as regulars of PRC Texas Ranger series. With budgets so minuscule that they were paid out of petty cash, the guys are sent in Frontier Fugitives after a gang that's killing both Indians and whites and the Indians could go on the warpath again.

We never see any Indians in Frontier Fugitive, but we do see some white people dressed like Indians and they're after one particular trapper who has hidden a cache of furs somewhere that the bad guys would like to heist. The late trapper left a written message for his daughter that we spend most of the movie trying to find.

This series was the poor relation of Republic's Three Mesquiteers or Monogram's Range Busters. Tex Ritter sings a bit and there's some good action for western fans, but this is nothing to write home about.

Texas Rangers Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien and comic relief Guy Wilkerson are riding towards Indian territory, but get caught up in an entirely different matter. George Morrell is killed by a gang who want his valuable furs. He has hidden them, so it's a race between the bad guys and the Rangers, helping out Morrell's daughter, Lorraine Miller.

It's an interesting if minor variation on the 'save the ranch' plot, but in the hands of director Harry L. Fraser, about six minutes of story, six of Ritter singing, six of riding around Corriganville and shooting at one another, and another six of Wilkerson's now-unfashionable clowning -- he disguises himself as an Indian who talks with many "ugh"s -- are eked out to 57 minutes. Writer Elmer Clifton might have put in a few red herrings, but he knew who he was working for, so we have to watch people ride in, hitch their horses, walk to the front door, enter, then switch to inside until they do what they came to do a couple of minutes earlier. Fraser's continued employment, even at end-of-the-road PRC remains a mystery to me. Perhaps he was paying them.

The popularity of Republic's Three Mesquiteers series prodded the other Hollywood studios cranking out Saturday matinée westerns to respond in kind. Based on William Colt MacDonald's novels which in turn gave a cowboy setting to Alexandre Dumas' classic Three Musketeers, The Texas Rangers had three gun totting rangers who usually worked undercover as in this outing. The combination tried to include a lover, a gunfighter, and a comic. In this final version of the Texas Rangers, the versatility and charisma of the three leads make for a winning combination. Dave "Tex" O'Brien who gained fame by playing Captain Midnight, was just right for the role of Texas Ranger Dave Wyatt. He later starred in the Pete Smith specials and won an Emmy for his writing for the Red Skelton TV show. In "Frontier Fugitives," he is in hot pursuit of stolen furs. The love interest is provided by Lorraine Miller who plays the daughter of the man killed for his furs. But the romance doesn't really get off the ground. Tex Ritter, my favorite western hero, had the best singing voice of any of the singing cowboys and became a successful Nashville entertainer. He sold more records than any other singing cowboy besides Gene Autry. Tex gets to pick and sing in "Frontier Fugitives." He is undercover and says he wants to try out one of the guitars hanging on the wall where the fur thieves hang out. College educated, Tex was also a folklorist and interpreter of traditional Texas folk music.

The third ranger, Guy Wilkerson, aka Panhandle Perkins, did much of the comedy, but one thing I like about this series, especially after Tex Ritter replaced Jim Newill, is that the comic relief is shared by the entire cast, including the outlaws. "Frontier Fugitives" even gives the normally sombre I. Stanford Jolley a chance to strut his stuff. He pretends to be an Indian and clowns around with Panhandle who is also pretending to be an Indian. In the process Stanford Jolley gets his smoke laced with wacky weed. A stoned Jolley tries to find his way back to his cronies in town. Perhaps this idea came from Dave O'Brien who had earlier played in "Reefer Madness." Since not only Guy Wilkerson but also Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien were quite adept at doing comedy, at times the Texas Rangers series play almost as comic westerns, even a bit of satire is thrown in from time to time. One reason for this is possibly the low-budget with which the actors were made to work. All the fun distracted from the cheap sets and weak scripts.

The viewer gets action, humor, and songs performed by a master showman. Not bad for a 57 minute oater.

There's the expected matinée action, mostly hard riding through LA area scrublands, some flying fists not too well staged, and some fast shooting to wind up the storyline. Nothing special here, despite the appealing team of Ritter, O'Brien, and comedy relief Wilkerson. And, oh yes, there're premier bad guys with dueling moustaches, Jolley and Ingram, along with some suspicious tobacco that turns Jolley into a wobbly bobble-head. Seems the baddies are after a hidden cache of valuable furs and a number of shenanigans follow as Rangers O'Brien and Ritter pick up the trail. The comedy relief, however, would never fly today as Wilkerson and Jolley mock it up as clownish moustachioed Indians! Even if nothing more than a programmer, the story's too slack and meandering to be anything more than a time-passer. Ritter's tuneful warbling may actually be the movie's real highlight. All in all, I think the cast deserved better, even from lowly PRC.