The Lone Ranger (1949)

As a recent prize winner at Laurie Powers’ pulpwriter.com, I’m inviting everyone to join in an appreciation of the 1949 film The Lone Ranger. It’s one of the four movies in the box set of DVDs that came from OutWest, Bobbi Jean and Jim Bell’s well-stocked online western store.

This 69-minute black and white film, made for TV, recounts the legend of how the Lone Ranger was left for dead after an ambush of Texas Rangers by the outlaw Cavendish gang. Lured into a box canyon, they die one by one in a hail of bullets – all except for one wounded man, John Reid.

Reid is rescued by the buckskin-clad, pinto-riding Tonto, a Mohawk Indian (wandering far from home). Tonto was once rescued by the same John Reid when they were boys. Tonto returns the favor by nursing him back to health. Reid always either has his face covered or is turned away from the camera, so we never get a good look at him.

Texas Rangers, c1845

He stoically grieves for the loss of the brave men who died, especially his brother, Dan, who was leading the Rangers at the time of the ambush. After Tonto has buried the bodies, Reid vows to continue fighting lawlessness on the frontier until the last outlaw is found and punished. To hide his true identity, he wears a mask, and while he will use his gun as needed, he will never shoot to kill.

This vow is put to the test almost immediately, as the half-breed guide who led the Rangers into the trap is still alive and determined to kill Reid. The renegade’s rifle is shot from his hands, and he eventually loses his footing and falls from a canyon ledge to his death. Problem solved.

Next they rescue a beautiful white stallion from an attack by a wild beast, and the animal is so grateful that it decides to become the Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver. It’s fun to hear the Lone Ranger again calling him “big fella,” then leaning forward in the saddle to pat him on the shoulder.

The two men then set out to bring to justice the outlaw Cavendish, who has been taking over a frontier town by killing off all the leading citizens and replacing them with men from his own gang. (A plot device that only a 10-year-old kid in 1949 wouldn't question.)

There is much riding to and fro and gunfire, men being tied up, fistfights, and men being held at gunpoint. The Lone Ranger also finds time to reopen an old silver mine and decides to use only silver bullets in his gun, as a sign of his pure intentions to bring law and order to the frontier for all peace-loving folks.

National Day of the Cowboy

Today, July 24, 2010, is National Day of the Cowboy. A while ago, I invited western writers and fans of western writers to observe the day here at Buddies in the Saddle with a Fictional Cowboy Hall of Fame. I asked everyone to consider the novels and short stories they’ve read and to say a few words about the one character they believe best exemplifies the Code of the West.

Here’s what they had to say:

ChuckTyrell over at Outlaw Trail said...

 “I have to vote for Will Penny. The movie was based on one segment of a series called The Westerner. Sure shows the loyalty and honesty of the cowboy. According to Wikipedia, Heston said it was his favorite film, bar none, and that means he rated it higher than The Ten Commandments or Ben Hur. That's saying a lot for Will Penny.”

Will Penny was a creation of writer-director Tom Gries, who contributed to a good many TV westerns, like “The Westerner” and “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” plus a few films, starting with a B-western, The Bushwhakers (1959). After Will Penny (1968), he directed 100 Rifles (1969) and Breakheart Pass (1975).

David Cranmer over at Education of a Pulp Writer said...

 “Interesting that my mind wanders to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Interesting because Earp was not a fan of the term cowboy and hunted a group of them during his famous ride. But for books, the latest Robert B. Parker series featuring Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch sum up the code you speak of.”

Known maybe best for his crime fiction character Spenser in a series of at least 40 novels, and made into a successful TV series “Spenser for Hire” (1985-88), Robert B. Walker also wrote this series of Cole and Hitch westerns: Appaloosa (2005), Resolution (2008), Brimstone (2009), and Blue-Eyed Devil (2010). These came at the end of a long, award-winning career. Parker died in January of this year.

Walker Martin said...

“I vote for Hashknife Hartley, a character invented by long time western author, W.C. Tuttle. Hashknife was a rangeland detective who often worked for such organizations as Cattlemen's Associations. He appeared as the lead character in dozens of stories, serials, and books, mostly from such pulps as ADVENTURE, SHORT STORIES, WEST, and WESTERN STORY, during the 1920 through 1945 period. He certainly observed all the tenets of the Code of the West.”

W. C. Tuttle (1883-1969) sold 1000+ magazine stories and dozens of novels, almost all of them westerns. Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens were among his best known characters. He can be heard here reading two of their stories, recorded for radio broadcast in or about 1950. If you enjoy old radio drama, you’ll love these.

 Tuttle also wrote screenplays – imdb.com gives him story credit for more than 50 films, mostly in the 1920s. His last credit there is for an episode of the TV series, “Cheyenne” in 1958, called “Noose at Noon.”

Gary Dobbs, over at The Tainted Archive said...

 “I'd vote for Edge - the series character from George Gilman - he may in fact be an anti-westerner but they were damn exciting books.”

Gary has been talking up the Edge series recently and reprinted an interesting interview with author George Gilman at his blog. If you want to get the story behind the creation of Edge, the interview starts here.