The Fighting Redhead

"Fighting Redhead" is the very last of the Red Ryder films which began at Republic with the 1940 serial starring Don "Red" Barry, continued at Republic for 16 features with Wild Bill Elliott,another 7 with Allan "Rocky"Lane and then moved to Eagle-Lion for the last four with Jim Bannon. Bannon came closest to capturing the look of the comic-strip Red Ryder as drawn by Fred Harman and Don Kay Reynolds (aka Little Brown Jug) was the image of the comic strip Little Beaver. Bobby Blake (Robert Blake) who played Beaver in all 23 Republic features, wore a buck-skin outfit which did not match the way Harman had drawn the character. Bannon was not a great actor and the story lines for the four Bannon Ryders,including "Redhead", did not feature much action but this film is worth watching simply for the nostalgic element of seeing the end of one of the great B Western series.

Red Ryder, Buckskin, the Duchess and Little Beaver go to the help of an old rancher who has been threatened by the gang of a crooked saloon keeper. They run into his revenge-seeking daughter who's quick on the draw.

Comparisons to the previous Red Ryders featuring Wild Bill Elliott and Rocky Allan Lane are inevitable and I do love those films but the Fighting Redhead featuring Jim Bannon isn't too bad - it still has the enjoyable elements of the Republic Red Ryders such as the villainous schemes, the engaging plot and Jim Bannon makes a decent Red Ryder, even though he isn't as good as the aforementioned actors. Still he has a natural charm.

Faro Savage is trying to grab ahold of all the cattle he can and calls on rancher Dan O'Connor to help him cut down the fences of all the neighboring ranchers, so Savage can get ahold of all the roaming cattle. When O'Connor refuses Savage's offer, he decides to send a telegram to his friend Red Ryder to help him, despite the protests of O'Connor's daughter Sheila, who believes her family is too proud to accept help. When Savage kills a neighboring rancher, O'Connor discovers the gun, and plans to take it to the sheriff but he is later killed by Savage, right before Ryder arrives, and its up to Red, Buckskin, Little Beaver, and the Duchess to find the evidence against Savage. Decent Ryder entry, not as good as the Republic series, but able to hold his own. Bannon's interpretation seems to grow on me after awhile. The film has a decent finish, but does seem to move slowly up til then. The plot at the beginning with the rancher moving into Red's spread with his daughter is never brought up into the plot again. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.