The Black Lash

Lash LaRue, the black clad whipslinger of the frontier stars in this sequel to his 1948 film "Frontier Revenge". Along with his grizzled sidekick Fuzzy, he chases down and captures a desperado whom he had jailed years before. Fuzzy mugs it up to fine comic effect.

Unfortunately, LaRue's films suffered from increasingly smaller budgets and too much stock footage.This movie demonstrates that unfortunate fact. Lash had the perfect tough guy persona and his use of the western bullwhip made this film series unique.

This movie is poorly produced when compared to the 1948 film...... Lash deserved better. After this, he tried his hand at TV.

"The Black Lash" is supposed to be a sequel to the earlier "Frontier Revenge" (1948). In fact about 90% of the film is comprised of scenes lifted from the earlier film and others in the series.

Produced and directed by Ron Ormond, this was the last of the (1948-52) series and therefore more cheaply produced than most of the others.

The "plot" such as it is, has Lash and Fuzzy going after Rago (Ray Bennett) a baddie that they had sent up in the earlier film. Ormond used many of the same actors and scenes in both films. For example, Jim Bannon's role is lifted entirely from "Frontier Revenge"....and he receives no billing. Of the few "new" scenes shot specifically for this film there are a couple using a double for Bannon shot from behind.

Another quirk is the casting of Peggy Stewart as the heroine in the first film and as a saloon girl in the second, all while playing the same character and using much of her scenes from the first film.

At the beginning of the film we see the bank robbery sequence from "The Dalton's Women" where Tom Tyler and Bud Osborne can clearly be seen. Osborne by the way, plays the telegrapher in this one. Ormond also padded his running time with lengthy scenes of Lash and/or Fuzzy riding across the screen to and fro or chasing or being chased by the bad guys.

Although this film was shot on a shoestring budget, you have to give producer/director Ormond credit for turning out competent and entertaining little films, particularly the earlier ones in the series, with casts consisting of several familiar faces. It is unfortunate that the series had to end on this note.