Stagecoach to Denver

Roy Barcroft has a nasty scheme in mind to get some land for a stagecoach right of way for his line to Denver. It involves murdering a real land commissioner and substituting his man to make some new surveys and move people's claims around. All he has to do is keep people from going to Denver and worse keep folks from Denver away from his town. Unfortunately it's the town where Red Ryder and Little Beaver reside.

In the faked accident that killed the real commissioner and the stage driver a little boy was badly injured with a broken spine. Little Bobby Hyatt is taken to Emmet Lynn's place where he's doctored and his only living relative an aunt in Denver is sent for.

That's what Barcroft has to avoid, someone from Denver who would know the real new commissioner. So he substitutes Peggy Stewart for the aunt, but he doesn't let her in on all his plans. And Stewart turns out to have a heart and real concern for young Hyatt.

Of course Allan Lane and Robert Blake as the famous Red Ryder and Little Beaver figure it all out. As Barcroft says, Ryder's no fool.

Lane was taking over the Red Ryder series from Wild Bill Elliott whom Herbert J. Yates was starting to put into some big budget items in the hope he might have a breakout the way his other contract cowboy John Wayne did. It never quite worked out for Lane, but he handles the Red Ryder role well and later did it on television. And of course he was the voice of that horse of course, the famous Mister Ed.

Stagecoach To Denver might have rated another star had Barcroft who is presented to us as crafty and ruthless committed one more murder he should have. You'll have to see this Red Ryder western to see why.

With their crooked land scheme in trouble, villains sabotage a stagecoach, killing the local land commissioner and seriously wounding a young boy, before switching the boy's aunt and the commissioner's replacement with impostors, leading to the inevitable range war.

An alright, though trite entry in Republic Pictures' Red Ryder series, based on the popular comic strip, this stars Ron Lane as Ryder and Robert Blake as his pint-sized Indian sidekick Little Beaver. A fair amount of gun-play and a compact running time almost make up for the bland heroes and villains and so-so production values, which aren't quite as good as other, mostly earlier Republic B-westerns.

Peggy Stewart stands out as the attractive pretend aunt, who's re-awakened maternal instincts lead to a crisis of conscious.

This movie follows the b-movie western tradition. Red Ryder's sidekick, played by Robert Blake, appears little and has few lines, so if you want to find out about his acting as a child, this isn't the place. The story doesn't particularly stand out to me, but it's entertaining enough for the 10-year-olds it was produced for (although I'm not sure it would work with today's 10-year-olds). Peggy Stewart's character is the most interesting. She is a bad girl who spends the duration of the film turning good.

Almost anyone who grew up during and after the World War II years will recognize this shoot 'em up as similar to hundreds of quickie Westerns filmed during the period. I bought the film for $5 or less just to see what they were really like and, boy, it is exactly as I remember. I have seen chases and gun fights in and around the same rocks and trails in this film as in countless other Saturday matinées. If you do remember what it was like to sit through two of these plus shorts, cartoons and previews, you can refresh your memory and step back to a time when the movies were innocent and the good guys really did beat the bad guys . . . every time, all in less than one hour.

Allan Lane is Red Ryder and Robert Blake is Little Beaver in this outing which revolves around a double-crossing stagecoach owner in Elkhorn, Colorado and Dickie, an injured orphan who needs a risky back operation.

The script is above average and the ending although predictable has an unusual twist. There are some good chase scenes and gun battles plus several subplots which help make this a cut above average.

Red is a stagecoach driver for the Duchess, owner of the line south of Elkhorn. However, for unexplained reasons, Red does not regularly work. Instead, he he is consumed with exposing a fake land commissioner and his cohorts including the sheriff of Elkhorn.

If you like Red Ryder you will like this film. If you have not watched Red Ryder, this is a good choice to first watch.