6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ridin' and Ridin' and Ridin'--For Fifteen Weeks, May 24, 2006
I managed to finish the Alpha release of RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY. It nearly finished me! If you have to have it, the VCI release is probably the better choice for sound and picture quality.
The 1941 serial, a Universal product, is alternately goofy and tedious, with no resemblance to a taut chapterplay like FLASH GORDON, released only five years earlier by the studio. Way too long at fifteen chapters, it nonetheless makes an effort to tell a story with recognizable characters--that is, characters with actual personalities, rare in the world of serials. Most of the actors, some of them well above average, seem to be enjoying themselves and the quirky script. Light humor is the order of the day among the Riders (good-guy vigilantes who are out to protect miners' interests against corrupt businessmen and their hired guns), with Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Leo Carillo playing a sagebrush version of the Bickersons, while Buck Jones throws in one wisecrack after another (often aimed at Carillo's fractured English). As Pancho, Leo Carillo plays a somewhat feistier version of the Pancho he would play alongside Duncan Renaldo in TV's THE CISCO KID. Watching that series as a child, I had no idea that Carillo had already used the line "Let's went!" seven thousand four hundred and sixty-seven times before--and all in this serial.
Among the heavies, Charles Bickford's Wolfe Reade stands out. A worthy villain--he even scares his own men. Bickford had appeared with Garbo in ANNA CHRISTIE a decade earlier and looks annoyed at having to gallop around in the tumbleweeds with Lon Chaney, Jr.
The town to which everyone repairs now and then is called Panamint, which sounds like something you might put on your toothbrush. Every establishing shot of the town shows the same horses clopping down the street and the same old timer sitting in the same spot, puffing on his pipe. Outside of town, the Riders really do seem to be in Death Valley (or on the moon). They ride up and down the most inhospitable-looking crags and outcroppings of rock imaginable; the horses have incredibly solid footing, as if they know that a stumble here would send them immediately to the glue factory. I found myself breathing a sigh of relief whenever they turned a corner and suddenly found themselves among the scrub and familiar boulders of Iverson Ranch, where it was finally safe for a cowboy to be shot from his horse.
This was the "million-dollar serial." They must have spent it on bullets.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ho hum, ZZZZZZZ.....(Snore)...., November 1, 2005
With Buck Jones and Dick Foran as the heroes, accompanied by cowboy sidekicks Leo carillo and Big Boy Williams, and the presence of Lon Chaney Jr and Charles Bickford as villains with support from Richard Alexander (Prince Barin of the Flash Gordon serials)and Roy Barcroft (the one and only Mr Heavy of many serials), how can Universal miss with this "million dollar" serial. But they did BIG TIME. Seeing one chapter after another, you get the feeling that you had seen it before. With but a wee bit change in locale or cirmcumstance, the gunfights, the chases, the ambushes, the fisticuffs are "deja vuish". There is no "trick" to incentivize the viewer to stay on with this serial to the end (i.e., a masked villain or some evil fiend whose idenitity will be revealed in the end). After a ziliion bullets expended during the first 14 chapters with hardly any person getting hit or wounded, suddenly in the last chapter, the heroes become sharpshooters and finish off the villians in a span of one minute of gunfighting. This is absolutely a most boring and insane serial. The Alpha release is also bad in terms of picture quality (not clear and mostly faded) and sound (muffled and unclear at times). If this chapter play was any good, I would have subsequently bought the VCI version (probably with better picture quality and sound at nearly 4 times the price of the Alpha release). But this is a lame and sleepy serial so going through the agony of seeing this once is more than enough.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY-BUCK JONES, February 22, 2008
I now own "Riders Of Death Valley"-from the VCI version.It's great however what I don't like about VCI..as in the past..They show their "LOGO"on the screen every 5-mins.I hate it when I purchase a movie they haven't the right to do this.All dvd movies..I own Don't show any "LOGOS"during the movies.I guess VCI is bragging about.."RIDERS"! It's not a bad serial..but every time..the bad guys are chasing the good guys thru out the serial.And the good guys are not every out number.But to watch BUCK JONES is worth the money.He is funny,witty & great.Along with Pancho.So I might go ahead and buy this version.In the past..VCI never shown "LOGOS"So why now?
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