Red Fork Range (1931) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
2 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
2/10
Feuding over the government mail contract
bkoganbing18 July 2014
Minor silent screen cowboy star Wally Wales who later reinvented himself as western character player Hal Taliaferro stars in this early sound western Red Fork Range. Wales plays a frontier scout who gets involved with two stagecoach lines bidding for the government mail contract.

This was done for a poverty row outfit Big 4 Pictures and it certainly shows all around. The worst thing about it was the sound quality, I could barely make out the dialog. A lot of stock western footage no doubt left over from silent days got a music track added. I might have enjoyed the climax involving a stagecoach race better with better sound.

Wally Wales was a minor league cowboy hero from the silent days. But he got as his leading lady Ruth Mix, daughter of Tom Mix who was in the Twenties the king of cowboy heroes before Roy Rogers appropriated that title. She was certainly western royalty of sorts.

These poverty row films are in the public domain because no one wanted to spend the time and money to extend the copyright on items like Red Fork Range. I doubt we'll see a director's cut.
0 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
One for Alan James's legion of fans!
JohnHowardReid16 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Red Fork Range (1930): I loved this movie. Alvin J. Neitz is one of my favorite quickie directors and here he shows off most of the thrills – like horses galloping headlong right into the camera – that he was later to perfect in movies like The Painted Stallion (1938). In this one, of course, not having access to a cashed-up studio like Republic, Neitz's running inserts are a bit wobbly, but even discounting the fact that they're a poor man's side-show, they're really pretty fantastic all the same. I like the way Neitz keeps the camera turning, turning, turning, instead of aiming for a lot of short snips as he or his editors did in Painted Stallion. And there's a whole lot of these breathtaking running inserts! Neitz doesn't stint on the thrills. It could be said that he and his producers don't stint on all the silent stock footage either, in which you can plainly spot Lafe McKee as the colonel, only to have him turn up in the new footage itself as the heroine's dad! Nevertheless, there's more than enough new material to compensate for any budget shortcuts. In the leading roles, Wally Wales cuts an able enough figure as our hero, and it's good to see Ruth Mix (daughter of Tom Mix) as our heroine. Al Ferguson (318 movie credits, would you believe?) is in there too as the chief villain and it's easy to spot stuntman, Cliff Lyons, as Skeeter Beldon. All told, if you're willing to overlook its budgetary shortcomings, this is a great little film. Available on a good Alpha DVD coupled with a Tom Keene, Mexican-set western, Under Strange Flags, directed by the great Irvin Willat.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed