“Previously on The Range Busters…”
Following the completion of a narratively-stagnant, racist entry called Haunted Ranch, The Range Busters were split up as a result of World War II. Newcomer David Sharpe shipped out on a mission to personally slaughter Hitler. This, the series could recover from. But also leaving them was John “Dusty” King, the series’ sole marquee name for the past four films, ever since whiny beast Ray “Crash” Corrigan bowed out over salary issues. Only Max “Alibi” Terhune remained, and he was no star on his own – the man was comic relief, at “best.” But who on earth could they find to replace their two losses?
(Rex Lease, who’d replaced Sharpe halfway through Haunted Ranch, was also MIA, because he was too boring to even appear as the second-billed in fourth tier “trigger trio” westerns.)
Well, how ‘bout Ray “Crash” Corrigan? Apparently satisfied at last (in a resolution that is sadly unrecorded in all Range Busters material I can find), Corrigan took over headlining the franchise he himself had created through a series of legal rip-off loopholes. Crash was back, prepubescents across our great nation rejoiced, and the series was…still in its death throes, but on life support for four more entries.
But Corrigan was replacing Sharpe, who didn’t mean much to the franchise, really. With King gone too, someone else’ll hafta be found. That’ll be Dennis “Denny” Moore, an actor of exceptional blandness who was only still a civilian because former airplane crash injuries kept him out of the army. And Terhune was too fat, and potentially psychotic. What was Corrigan’s excuse?
No matter. Four more films would be made, until Corrigan grew uncooperative again and shut the entire franchise down – he controlled the “Corriganville” film set, after all, and held the legal rights to it. We’ll see why…after these film considerations:
Land of Hunted Men (1943) – This late in the game, they’ve seemingly run out of unique forms of Old West villainy. The bad guys are now robbing the mail – hell, The Three Mesquiteers succumbed to the same lame plot in their later years, in Pals of the Pecos. This one change aside, this sounds no different from any other entry. As always, a black-clad, (wispy) mustachioed evil businessman is overseeing the robbery of his own business, for confused and nebulous reasons. As always, the Range Busters pursue a distinct pattern of horse chases and shootouts in order to “cleverly” unearth the dastard. In the end, good is victorious.
And Fred “Snowflake” Toones is back as Snowflake, The Range Busters’ dignity-free black stereotype. That means Land of Hunted Men is helplessly offensive. And despite Snowflake’s apparent plot importance, of course he is credited last. Ay-yah!
Cowboy Commandos (1943) – Nazis! Yes! Of course, the non-combatant Range Buster actors are trying to “do their part” by defeating the Third Reich in fiction, this time quelling their efforts to sabotage a magnesium mine. For you see, without magnesium, the U.S. would lose WWII!...Sure. Wait, was this thing paid for by the Magnesium Advisory Council?!
Black Market Rustlers (1943) – Villainous cattle rustlers are running amok, and it’s up to the Range Busters to – Okay, whatever, I don’t care. Next!
And now we come to the last, final, ultimate, conclusive Range Busters film, part 24 out of 24, Bullets and Saddles (1943). And what joy, rather than guess about how awkward things have gotten here at the end, I get to watch this thing for myself. This should be instructive…
Villainous cattle rustlers are running amok, and it’s up to the Range Busters to – Okay, seriously, you’re going back to this well again? Ugh, methinks they were just running out the contract clock so they could legally conclude this series – the inspiration was sorta nonexistent by now.
So the main lesson learned from Bullets and Saddles is that, here at the end, they weren’t even trying. This is sort of the ür Range Buster entry, as there is absolutely nothing in here which cannot be found in some other entry. I swear, this might as well just be the standard franchise script template, unadorned, and filmed. We got our standard nogoodery, with no motive or justification. An innocent man is framed most conveniently for the rascals’ rapaciousness, and the Range Busters are called in to fix things. Here, the villains take on an inexplicable concern with killing the man they’ve framed, forgetting all about their initial motivations. Eventually, post-romance and puppet terror, the Range Busters simply luck into discovering the rapscallions’ villainies, then defeat them the only way our heroes know how: with face punching. Snore!
Okay, let’s see what I can draw from my notes (having completely forgotten about the film itself, immediately post-viewing)…Well, bad guy = Evil Businessman. Ho-hum! Also, he’s played by Glenn Strange, whom I’ve grown tired of as well. Ho-hum!
…
…
Actually, you know what, this is perhaps the least inspiring film I’ve yet seen for this blog project. I swore I wouldn’t do this (often), but the time has come to simply quote myself. What follows, from here on out, are simply the notes I made while watching this boring, boring, bland, bland movie. Skip over this tripe if you so desire. That’s basically what I’m doing…
“Cattle rustling happens. Cabins burned. Shootouts in the streets. General chaos of filmmaking.
Marshal Claiburn (Forrest Taylor) debates stopping renegades, led by Jack Hammond (Glenn Strange, erstwhile Range Buster heavy). In comes Laura Craig (Julie Duncan) to report violence to father Charley Craig (Budd Buster).
Town set. Baddies. They see to Hammond in his Evil Businessman Offices. Later, Claiburn tips off Hammond about the Craig vigilante posse a-raisin’ – Claiburn’s in Hammond’s pocket. The posse group called Craig’s list – whoa!
Henchmen trail Charley to ranch set. Finding Landers’s corpse (who?), Charley pegged (framed) for murder.
Later, Mother Craig (Rose Plummer) and Laura fret over what happened. She wants Range Busters to help. (She helped raise Crash.)
Trio chats in wilderness about Mother. Alibi horse chase is now happening. After a nogoodnik of sorts. To go help Mother now, goon gone.
Craig Ranch, Mother tells trio of generic problems. Alibi to go investigate in town, as usual.
Alibi in town w/ Elmer. Sees a mob raising in saloon, to demand an arrest of Charley (he’s still at home yet). Alibi does same ventriloquist act as always to fret the goons – script recycling at its finest. Meeting w/ Hammond.”
“Wilderness, a bushwhack on buckboard busybody (Charley). Baddie bides time, is caught. At gunpoint by Charley, who wants confession. They fistfight before goon lair. Charley escapes, is chased off at length. Escape.
Ranch, harmonica played by Denny. A whole tune.
Trio spies on I’m not paying attention. (Hammond.) He visits the Craigs for Charley. Denny sends Hammond on his way. Crash suspects this a distraction so baddies can hunt for Charley. (Mother an old warhorse, most interesting character in whole franchise by far!)”
“Trio rides, finds Charley in a ditch by overturned buckboard.
Ranch, night. No, saloon. Or someplace. Eh. Hammond schemes. Crash captured outside, brought in. Fights way out, flees on horse in extreme darkness.”
“Ranch, Charley taken here, henchman here to get him. Gun standoffs. Something happens.
Hammond rides. Er…trio creeps around shack lair, to overhear Hammond’s latest scheming – to burn ranch, kill all. Forget even why the baddies are doing all this nonsense.
Ranch, Alibi torments captured henchman. Story of turning state’s evidence. Mother. She gets goon to spill proverbial beans.
Denny and Crash chat by horses. Plan an ambush with cattle for next rustling.
Shack lair, Hammond assembles rustler goons.
Setting too dark to tell, characters creep. Setting ranch house on fire. Trio around someplace.
Day thank God, baddies ride. All ride all over wherever the hell. Trio hides in a cave. Ambush takes place, shootout erupts. Then a horse chase happens – END! END! NOW! Sheriff’s (er, Marshal’s) men arrive, help round up Hammond’s men.
Ranch, apparent success, Laura never romanced, plot never twisted, Mother satisfied. The end!”
*************************************************************
While I could postulate as to why The Range Busters ceased to be – WWII, the slow dissolution of B-filmmaking, general crappiness – I have to think Ray Corrigan most responsible for the end. After all, his big business goal by 1943 was to transform his Corriganville ranch and film set into a Southern California theme park – these being the days before Disneyland, all he could think of doing was a cheap, Monogram-esque knock off of Knott’s Berry Farm.
It took Corrigan until 1949 to get Corriganville safe enough to allow countless children access – children whom I’m certain Max Terhune was veeery happy to see. You see, wither Corrigan, wither Terhune, his obedient little hound. Thus both men weathered the devolution from Mesquiteers to Range Busters to performers at a short-lived Simi Valley tourist destination. There, Corrigan would do variations on his admittedly good stunts, while Terhune would “entertain” youngsters with the vile Elmer, hardening their souls up in readiness for the dread Howdy Doody.
Throughout the later 40s, whenever Corrigan wasn’t working on Corriganville, he was dressed up in a gorilla suit, rampaging all over Hollywood movie sets – sometimes he was even paid for it. (What an ignominious fate for a major B-western star.)
The story of The Range Busters, such as it is now (we’ve made it to the 1950s in our chronology), is purely the story of Corriganville. The place still did occasional film shoots, and remained open to impressionable youths up until 1965. Then it was purchased by Bob Hope of all people, who used the land for tract housing and motorcycle races – man, life is odd. A fire rampaged through the land in the late 70s, and now it’s just another piece of easily-burned Southern California wilderness, where I’ve almost certainly fought a fire at one point or another.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. How appropriate that, withered and barely recognizable, the last physical vestiges of The Range Busters succumbed to flames and returned to the earth. In its weird and indirect way, this offers closure to the great, bizarre Range Busters saga which cannot be found in a mere film. To get really pretentious, it’s even a metaphor for the western genre as a whole (love it though I do). And we’ll always have the DVDs, and the public domain host sites online, there to offer 45.833% of the series for our viewing delectation.
I’ll be seein’ ya, folks.
Related posts:
• No. 4 Trail of the Silver Spurs (1941)
• No. 8 Fugitive Valley (1941)
• No. 9 Saddle Mountain Roundup (1941)
• No. 10 Tonto Basic Outlaws (1941)
• No. 11 Underground Rustlers (1941)
• No. 13 Rock River Renegades (1942)
• No. 16 Arizona Stagecoach (1942)
• No. 17 Texas to Bataan (1942)
• No. 18 Trail Riders (1942)
• No. 20 Haunted Ranch (1943)
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