Tornado Range

The Feds have just opened west Texas for homesteading, and the ranchers are prepared to fight them. So the Feds have sent Eddie Dean, his horse Copper, and Roscoe Ates (in that order on the credits) to make sure the minimum number of people get plugged in this pretty good B western. There's also some grudging help from Jennifer Holt, a rancher's daughter who wants as little bloodshed as possible.

It's pretty standard stuff, although editor Joseph Gluck forces the cutting pace down to less than two seconds per clip to add some real excitement to the big fight at the end. Eddie sings two songs, neither of which impressed me.

This is one of the very last pictures out of Poverty Row's PRC studios, and they do nothing to improve their reputation here. If you were to watch this, you'd swear it was an early 1930's B western. Horrible, black & white film stock. Out of fashion, singing cowboy premise (thankfully, only two songs). And was anyone else but PRC putting out movies with less than a one hour running time in 1948? Oh, and Eddie Dean's horse, Copper, got second billing, which must have made co-star Jennifer Holt feel ever so happy.

This plays for all the world like one of any number of serial western shorts that played in the 30's and 40's. Handsome hero (Eddie Dean, being incredibly so-so), bumbling/grizzled/goofy sidekick (Roscoe Ates) for comic relief, and a beautiful woman to be won over by film's end. Add obligatory horse chases, shootouts, and fist fights and there you have it; a western fit for just about nobody.

Nothing here you haven't seen in many other westerns, and done much better. This was one of the last pictures of Eddie Dean. Even he was beginning to realize his time was up, although he went on to live in retirement for another 40 years. Not a horrible film, like Riders of Destiny, with John Wayne's "Singin' Sandy", but nothing here to really look forward to unless you have a serious interest in one of the stars. Copper, perhaps?