The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger (1938)

HEIGH-YO, SILVER! NOW WE'RE ON THE SCREEN! The three greatest characters of radio brought to vital screen life in the outstanding serial entertainment of all time.

In 1865, Captain Mark Smith of the Confederate Army leads a band of deserters to conquer Texas and rule it as a dictator. In one of his first actions, he captures and assumes the identity of Texas' new Finance Commissioner, Colonel Marcus Jeffries, after having the real man murdered. When a contingent of Texas Rangers enters the territory, Snead, one of Smith's men, leads them into an ambush by Smith's "troopers". The Rangers are apparently wiped out, although one injured survivor is left. The survivor, nursed back to health by Tonto, swears to avenge the massacre and defeat "Colonel Jeffries" and his men.

Date of release
1938-02-13
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (3)
Runtime
4h 24m
Genres
Western
Director
John English, William Witney

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is a 1938 American Republic Pictures movie serial based on The Lone Ranger radio program. It was the ninth of the sixty-six serials produced by Republic, the fourth Western and the first Republic serial release of 1938. The following year a sequel serial The Lone Ranger Rides Again was released. The fifteen chapters of the serial were condensed into the film Hi-Yo Silver, which was released in 1940.

Production

A contract between Republic and George W. Trendle for a Lone Ranger serial, and the right to release a condensed version, was signed in June 1937. Trendle and The Lone Ranger Inc. were paid $18,750 plus 10% of any rental share above a $390,000 minimum.

There was some disagreement between Republic and Trendle but the contract gave Republic authority over the script and characters. Republic planned that the Lone Ranger would unmask in the last chapter, revealing himself to Joan Blanchard (Lynn Roberts) as Allen King (Lee Powell).

After the second Lone Ranger serial, which features Robert Livingston as the title character, who appeared in a mostly unmasked state, George Trendle decided to dissolve his relationship with Republic and offer the property to another studio.

The Lone Ranger was budgeted at $160,315 although the final negative cost was $168,117 (a $7,802, or 4.9%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial until the release of Dick Tracy Returns later in 1938.

It was filmed between 28 November and 31 December 1937. At nineteen days, this was the shortest production for a Republic serial until Zombies of the Stratosphere in 1952. The serial's production number was 794.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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