The Range Busters (1940)

In this fast-paced, light-hearted Western from 1940 - "Crash" Corrigan, "Dusty" King, and "Alibi" Terhune (along with Elmer, the dummy) make up what's known as the Range Busters. These cowboy-dudes are very much like the 3 Musketeers of the Wild West, righting wrongs all across the new frontier.Homer Thorp, owner of the Circle T Ranch, finds himself in deadly danger when the mysterious Phantom strikes, terrorizing the land and killing his ranch hands.Thorp sends for immediate help from the Range Busters, 3 heroic cowboys, who have a vast reputation for bringing justice, law and order to the untamed West.When the Range Busters arrive at the Circle T Ranch they discover that Thorp has unexpectedly been murdered by the Phantom.In their noble quest to uncover the true identity of the Phantom, the Range Busters come into fierce conflict with a notorious outlaw named Torrance, along with his ruthless gang of mighty mean hombres.The Range Busters is an enjoyable Western.

The Range Busters series were popular afternoon fare for Fifties youngsters on television. Cincinnati's WCPO-TV had a Six Gun Theater every afternoon at 5 p.m. for the young cowpokes to enjoy while Mom was rustling up chow. Of course, we couldn't eat in front of the television set so sometimes we had to come to the table, without knowing what was going to happen to Crash, Dusty and Alibi. Why Corrigan did not gain control of the series and distribute them to television stations under the banner of Range Busters Theater is anyone's guess. He had a controlling interest in the films since they were shot on his Corriganville Ranch. At the time Corriganville was opened as an amusement park in 1949, the films were being shown to youngsters on television. To us kids born after WWII, they may have seemed a little dated with Old West cowboys fighting Nazi spies, but what the heck, it was only a movie. Like their contemporary series, the Trail Blazers (Maynard, Gibson and Steele), they provided great fun for all us kids in the Fifties.

'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!

The first of the Range Busters movies. It starts off great, with a cowboy who's midway through singing a song being shot through an open window by "The Phantom." Unfortunately, there is one other song in the movie (sung by Dusty & strummed by Crash). A couple of other problems: 1) can anybody tell me why Alibi, a grown man, is carrying around a wooden dummy (Elmer) as he rides the range?, 2) can anybody tell me what happens to the Earle Hodgins character? He's a central character who just completely disappears without a mention! Other than those gripes, this is a good western, with likable lead characters, good action, & not too much humor or music, & I've never seen anyone drop a love interest as quickly as Dusty does in this movie! Enjoyable, & worth watching.