Rustlers of Red Dog

Frankly, this one was a surprise. This vintage serial was loaded with action sequences - especially in the first four chapters. Brown, Miller and Hatton are a great trio. You will have to put up with some awfully contrived dialogue, especially Miller's constant referral to gambling and cards when talking about anything. However, there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there.

Rustlers of Red Dog was the first of four serials that Johnny Mack Brown made for Universal in the 30s. It's loaded with non-stop action and boasts a cast of thousands. There are large scale Indian attacks and raids by the large gang of rustlers of the title a-plenty. There is liberal usage of the Universal library of stock footage (obviously from the 20s)very much in evidence as well.

There are the usual assortment of cliff hangers at the end of each chapter (falls off the cliff, overturned wagons, the hero and/or heroine in life threatening situations etc.).

There is a stellar cast of serial and "B" Western veterans in the cast. An all in black Brown plays the hero and Raymond Hatton and Walter Miller play his two sidekicks. One of the best "B" Western villains, Harry Woods (billed here as H.L. Woods) plays the chief bad guy and Joyce Compton is the helpless heroine "Mary".

A sharp-eyed fan of "B" Westerns will spot veterans Edmund Cobb, Bud Osborne and Wally Wales (Hal Taliaferro) as members of Woods' gang and Iron Eyes Cody, Chief Thundercloud and Jim Thorpe as injuns.

Although lacking the polish of the later Republic serials and over-using stock footage, I nonetheless found this serial very entertaining.