The Gun Ranger

Another great western from the Bradbury boys with an excellent cast. Eleanor Stewart with great skill shows why she won the MGM talent contest. Great to see Budd Buster as Steele's reliable sidekick. Ernie Adams played a great role and kept us guessing which side of the law he was on. John Merton, Earl Dwire, and Judge Frank Ball kept the pace going with very challenging acting roles. Even Hal Taliaferro with a small part added to the success of the action packed The Gun Ranger.

When a mistrial is declared and Ernie Adams is freed, Ranger Bob Steele is fed up. Every time he brings in a law breaker, he walks free on a technicality. He resigns and announced he is going after Adams as a private citizen, and no one can stop him. However there are mysteries within mysteries and he soon discovers the phony outfit just over the hill is central to the goings-on.

This looks like the last film that Robert Bradbury directed Bob Steele in before the contract was sold to Republic Pictures, which wound up distributing it the following year. It's not a particularly enthralling effort for the father-son pairing. Steele doesn't get to do much in the way of his wonted acrobatics, and by the time "the boss" shows up masked halfway through, it's pretty clear what's going on. The rest is a matter of people explaining what they've been doing and a final gun battle. The following year, Republic would begin to bankroll the pictures and the production values would begin to pick up. Inthe meantime, this one looks like a meiocre placeholder for the usually delightful Steele.

Ernie Adams has a very different role here, and he grabs his opportunity with both hands and proves a stand-out!

Budd Buster, here billed as Bud, also plays a very different character from his usual, and again almost steals the entire movie.

Bob Steele is the nominal star, and is, as usual, stalwart, strong, dependable, and full of action. He is such a joy to watch as a cowboy, and especially on horseback -- even mounting his cayuse -- but in his fight scenes, every time I see him battling a villain who is usually bigger than he is, I think, "He could have been a champion boxer."

Very athletic, very watchable, and very much a pleasure to see in action.

The story in "The Gun Ranger" is almost convoluted, there are so many twists, and often the presumed bad guys aren't quite what they seem, and sometimes the presumed good guys aren't either.

Incredibly prolific writer George Plympton is credited as adapter of the story by the not-so-active Homer King Gordon and they have created a good script, crammed full with action and excitement.

Their story is helped immensely by one of the best casts of Western performers, too many of whom don't even get screen credit, such as the talented-far-beyond-his reputation Hal Taliaferro.

There is a fair print at YouTube and I highly recommend "The Gun Ranger."

Bob Steele was unusual compared to other B-movie stars. He was a very small man and didn't sing....but he was an accomplished stuntman and horseman and could make fights and horse chases look very realistic. He also was rather laconic in his films....talking little and letting his fists do the talking for him. I generally enjoy his movies though must admit he made a few stinkers. The "Gun Ranger" is somewhere in the middle.

Dan Larson (Steele) is a lawman who is getting very frustrated. Again and again, he captures baddies and the judge lets them off on various technicalities. So, after realizing he'll never get justice by working with the system, he quits and goes on a vigilante campaign in order to discover who is behind all this.

The film could have been better. The fight scenes were very nice (as usual) but there are less stunts and action than you'd expect...and instead it seems a bit talky. Plus it had a horrible cliche...the woman who just stands there doing NOTHING while the hero and baddie fight it out right in front of her! But it's STILL enjoyable and worth seeing.