''The Adventures of Red Ryder'' is a 1940 12-chapter

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

movie serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

directed by

William Witney William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serials: ''Dick Tracy Returns'', ''G-Men vs. the Black ...

and John English and starring

Don "Red" Barry Donald Barry de Acosta (January 11, 1912 – July 17, 1980), also known as Red Barry and Milton Poimboeuf, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 19 ...

and

Noah Beery, Sr. Noah Nicholas Beery (January 17, 1882 – April 1, 1946) was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of prominen ...

, based on the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

Red Ryder Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

''. This serial is the 18th of the 66 serials produced by Republic.

Premise

The plot follows a standard B-Western pattern of a villain trying to run the legitimate owners off their valuable land. In this case, the value comes from the building of a railroad.

Synopsis

A gang, led by banker Calvin Drake, plans to drive off

ranchers A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

from their land to profit from a railroad. However, on one of these ranches, the Circle R, lives the Ryder family who resist the gang. After his father, Tom, is killed by One Eye Chapin, Red Ryder swears revenge and sets out to defeat the gang once and for all.

Cast

. Donald Barry retained the nickname from this serial as Don "Red" Barry. *

Noah Beery Noah Nicholas Beery (January 17, 1882 – April 1, 1946) was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of prominen ...

as Ace Hanlon * Tommy Cook as Little Beaver * Maude Pierce Allen as Duchess Ryder * Vivian Coe as Beth Andrews *

Harry J. Worth Harry J. Worth (6 February 1903 - 3 November 1975), was a British-born actor, appeared in British productions 1916-1929 and later appeared in a number of feature films after moving to Hollywood in 1935 to 1963. He was generally credited as Harr ...

as Calvin Drake *

Hal Taliaferro Floyd Taliaferro Alderson (November 13, 1895 – February 10, 1980) was an American film actor who specialized in westerns. After serving in the Great War, he began his career in the era of silent films, when he frequently used the name Wally ...

as Cherokee Sims *

William Farnum William Farnum (July 4, 1876 – June 5, 1953) was an American actor. He was a star of American silent film cinema and became one of the highest-paid actors during that time. Biography Farnum was born on July 4, 1876, in Boston, Massachus ...

as Colonel Tom Ryder *

Bob Kortman Robert F. Kortman (December 24, 1887 – March 13, 1967) was an American film actor mostly associated with westerns, though he also appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy comedies. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1914 and 1952. ...

as One-Eye Chapin *

Carleton Young Captain Carleton Scott Young (October 21, 1905 – November 7, 1994) was an American character actor who was known for his deep voice. Early years Born in Fulton, Oswego, New York, Young was the second and only surviving child of St ...

as Sheriff Dade

Production

''The Adventures of Red Ryder'' was based on

Fred Harman Fred Charles Harman II (February 9, 1902 - January 2, 1982) was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular ''Red Ryder'' comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used th ...

's comic strip. The serial was budgeted at $144,852 although the final

negative cost Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion. Low-budget movies, for example ''The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural h ...

was $145,961 (a $1,109, or 0.8%, overspend). 1940 was the first year in which Republic's overall spending on serial production was less than in the previous year. It was filmed between 27 March and 25 April 1940. The serial's production number was 997. The special effects were created by the

Lydecker brothers Howard and Theodore Lydecker, always known—and billed—as such, were Howard "Babe" Lydecker (June 8, 1911 – September 26, 1969) and Theodore Lydecker (November 7, 1908 – May 25, 1990), a special effects team primarily working as contract s ...

, Republic's in-house effects team.

Stunts

* David Sharpe as Red Ryder (doubling Don "Red" Barry) *

Duke Green William Howard Greene (1895–1956) was an American cinematographer. Career Greene was a cinematographer on many early Technicolor films, including '' Legong: Dance of the Virgins'' (1935) and '' A Star Is Born'' (1937). Awards * 1937: Specia ...

Ted Mapes Ted Mapes (November 25, 1901 – September 9, 1984) was an American character actor, who was also a prolific stuntman and body double. Born on November 25, 1901, in St. Edward, Nebraska, he moved to Los Angeles in his mid-20s, and entered the fi ...

* Post Park *

Ken Terrell Kenneth Jones Terrell (April 29, 1904 – March 8, 1966) was an American western and action film actor and stuntman best known for playing Joe Marcelli in the 1956 film ''Indestructible Man ''Indestructible Man'' is a 1956 American cri ...

Bill Yrigoyen Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

Joe Yrigoyen Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

Release

Theatrical

''The Adventures of Red Ryders official release date is 28 June 1940, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.

Chapter titles

# Murder on the Santa Fe Trail (27min 48s) # Horsemen of Death (16min 42s) # Trail's End (16min 41s) # Water Rustlers (16min 39s) # Avalanche (16min 44s) # Hangman's Noose (16min 44s) # Framed (16min 42s) # Blazing Walls (16min 42s) # Records of Doom (16min 42s) # One Second to Live (16min 43s) # The Devil's Marksman (16min 41s) # Frontier Justice (16min 44s) _Source: This was one of two 12-chapter serials produced by Republic in 1940. The other is the following ''

King of the Royal Mounted ''King of the Royal Mounted'' is an American comics series which debuted February 17, 1935 by Stephen Slesinger, based on popular Western writer Zane Grey's byline and marketed as ''Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted''. The series' protagonist i ...

'', also based on a comic strip. Republic's standard pattern was two 12-chapter serials and two 15-chapter serials in each year.

References

External links

* * {{William Witney 1940 films 1940 Western (genre) films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films based on comic strips Films based on American comics Films directed by John English Films directed by William Witney Republic Pictures film serials American Western (genre) films Films scored by Paul Sawtell 1940s American films Red Ryder films