The Renegade Ranger
Director: David
Howard
Year:
1938
Rating: 5.0
A solid one hour
B Western from RKO or as they were called back then, an Oater. There are
three big names in this one - one of them past his best days and two with
fame just down the road. These are nice little time-killers where you know
the villains will end up in jail or in Boot Hill and the good guys will ride
off into the sunset. In this one George O'Brien is a Texas Ranger with a
mission to catch a female senorita gunslinger accused of murder and with
a gang of Hispanics. O'Brien was a big star in the silent era. A tough guy
who was the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the Pacific Fleet during WWI and
joined the navy for WWII. He was a stuntman when John Ford picked him out
to star in the Iron Horse, one of the great silent epic Westerns. He was
also the lead male in Sunrise with Janet Gaynor, one of the great silent
films. When talkies came along his popularity ebbed - though his speaking
voice is fine - and he ended up as a popular actor in the B Western films
- which was a huge market in the days of double features.
One of his Texas Rangers was dismissed after
he got into a bar room brawl and erroneously blamed O'Brien for ratting him
out. He joins the gang run by the Alvarez female. He is Tim Holt in about
his first Western. His father Jack Holt had been an actor in nearly 200 films.
Holt was soon to become a very big star with his boyish looks in the B Western
trade though his most famous role is as one of the three men searching for
gold in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. O'Brien goes undercover and joins the
Alvarez gang as well and soon has doubts about her guilt. This gun-toting
hard riding female is played by Rita Hayworth having dropped her Rita Cansino
name and looking absolutely gorgeous here. One other actor of note is the
quiet slow talking Ranger who picks up a guitar at one point and sings. He
is Ray Whitley - composer of Back in the Saddle Again, managed the Sons of
the Pioneers and invented the Gibson guitar.
