The Painted Stallion

First, the film location for this serial was the desert country east of St George, Utah, famous today for Arches and Capitol Reef National Parks and the Moab adventure rock country. It was made famous by Zane Gray in his Rainbow Trilogy anchored by Riders of The Purple Sage.Had this movie been made a mere three years later it would have been breathtaking. As it is it has a genuine punch. Republic fans now know the great William Witney was rushed into the directorship because his boss was stoned, and never gave up his seat, a mere twenty one. There is a real and natural feeling in this serial, a genuine sense of myth such as we get from the classics. The scenes of The Rider, a beautiful and mysterious girl who shoots singing arrows( this would have been my choice for the title) and wears a long "Chief's" head dress, are memorable. A scene, well into the movie, in which she and her painted stallion are trapped in a box canyon, is one of the best done and convincing things I've ever seen. Music lovers will hear echos of Wagner and Litz in the sound track( Les Preludes, by Litz, was used for Flash Gorden serials) The plot, while fiction, is well founded in history, and quite plausible It is a stretch to see the beloved Duncan Renaldo as a heavy, however. The La Sal mountains of southern Utah can pass for New Mexico and Santa Fe. It was in blazing the Santa Fe trail that the name Studebaker enters history as a maker of wagons. Including Kit Carson as a boy was another good touch. Today, revisionist history and modern western writers are not so kind, and Colonel Carson comes across as less than honorable in his dealing with the New Mexico Navajo. But it won't ruin the movie which is pretty darned honest as well as mythic.

Although the IMDb lists Alan James and Ray Taylor as directors of the Painted Stallion, a look at the credits is needed to see that William Witney's name was added as director. Witney tells the story in his book,"In A Door, Into A Fight - Out A Door, Into A Chase" of how he became a serial director at Republic while only in his twenties. He had been "holding the script" for Painted Stallion, as an assistant to directors James and Taylor. He already had experience as a film cutter so he knew how to pace the storyline. Witney says that the crew was out on location at Lone Pine (I believe) and the weather was very cold. Taylor had already been nipping at the bottle on the way up. He even had his young son with him who tried desperately to keep his father in line. At the end of a scene, Taylor simply arose from his chair and began walking over to another area from where the crew had been working. Everybody assumed that he was going to set up the next scene. The camera man, the electricians and everybody followed him. When he came to a bush, he simply sat down and opened up his coat from which he took a bottle and proceeded to take a good slug, right in front of the whole crew!!! Unfortunately, the producer was there and fired Taylor on the spot, sending him home with his son. Witney said, the producer then turned to him and said "Could you help direct for a few days until we could get a replacement." Witney said he would and stayed on to help finish the serial. In the finished print, his name comes third. That was in l937 and Witney remained at Republic until it closed its' doors in 1959. He was of course part of the famous serial directorial team, partnering with Jack English. Ray Taylor did however continue direct serials over at Universal and then for Ron Ormond's Lash Larue series.