The Range Busters

Colorized Classic Western: The Range Busters - After the owner of the Circle T Ranch is murdered by a ghostly serial killer, owner Carol Thorp resists offers to buy the ranch and is helped defend her property by the Range Busters.

The Range Busters (1940)
Director: S. Roy Luby
Writers: Harry L. Fraser (story), John Rathmell (story and screenplay)
Stars: Ray Corrigan, John ‘Dusty’ King, Max Terhune
Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery, Western
Country: United States
Language: English
Release Date: 22 August 1940 (USA)
Filming Location: Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA

Storyline:
In the first of the Range Buster series, a mysterious phantom is murdering the hands at the Circle T Ranch and the owner sends for the Range Busters just before he too is killed. They quickly run into trouble with Torrance and his gang. Torance is after the Circle T but Crash doesn’t think he is the phantom. Instead he suspects it may be blind Uncle Rolf. When the phantom strikes next, Crash is ready and his identity is soon revealed.

Reviews:
“‘Range Busters’ is an absolutely typical example of the low-budget quickie grind’em-out Western. It will therefore be hugely enjoyable to those who like such things, but not to many other people.

Crash and Dusty are typical white-hat cowboy heroes. Their friend Alibi, the comedy relief, is a ventriloquist cowpoke who spends a lot of time conversing with his dummy. (As a ‘vent’, Max Terhune is technically more proficient than Edgar Bergen, but not nearly as funny.)

Somebody keeps shooting the ranch hands at Carol Thorp’s spread. Annoyingly, everyone keeps referring to the unknown killer as a ‘phantom’ even though he hasn’t claimed any paranormal powers. We get one of those cliché murder scenes from the viewpoint of the killer, as his victim backs away from the camera and begs for mercy. Naturally, our heroes decide to sign on at Carol’s ranch.

There’s some very crude expository dialogue, and some overripe wisecracks. ‘What good is a job that may lead to a passport to eternity?’ is one example. As the squinty villain sees the heroes riding into town, he tells his henchman: ‘See that they don’t hang up their hats in this town.’ Carol’s helpful comment is: ‘The Phantom always does what is least expected.’ So it should be easy to catch him, then: just figure out what’s least expected, and be one jump ahead of him.

SPOILERS COMING: Carol’s uncle Rolf is ostensibly blind: he wears dark glasses and uses a stick to feel his way. However, the movie plants several blatantly obvious clues that he isn’t really blind. Despite this imposture, Rolf isn’t the Phantom. He’s just a red herring … or maybe a smoked herring, because he’s wearing smoked glasses.

It’s no spoiler to say that the white hats beat the black hats. One of my least favourite clichés is the one about the two buddies and the girl: when one buddy develops an interest in a woman, the other buddy decides he has to ‘save’ his friend from that hideous fate. We get that ending here, except that it’s two against one … with Crash and Alibi uniting to keep Dusty away from Carol. Still, ‘Range Busters’ was clearly made for a juvenile audience, so I understand the decision to cut out the ‘mushy stuff’.

‘Range Busters’ is no ‘Citizen Kane’ or ‘Battleship Potemkin’, but I strongly feel that all films should be judged by their genre and their intentions. By that standard, ‘Range Busters’ succeeds in most of what it meant to do, and I’ll rate this movie 7 out of 10. Saddle up, pardners!”

• written by “F Gwynplaine MacIntyre” on IMDb.com
  

Also Known As (AKA):
(original title) The Range Busters
Denmark De tre dynamit-cowboys
Finland (working title) Yön rosvot
Germany (DVD title) Die Range Busters - Elmer, der lustige Cowboy
Germany Das gibt es nur in Texas
Italy Uomini del West
Portugal Companheiros de Luta
UK The Range Busters
USA The Range Busters

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