bkoganbing
The Breeden Brothers, outlaws by trade are hanging around a certain territory doing their dastardly worse but with a special mission in mind. Brother and sister Edwin Brian and Luana Walters are the son and daughter of a judge who hung another brother. The Breedens, Al Bridge and Glenn Strange want some vengeance and what better way than to lure young Brian into the outlaw life.But these two don't reckon the presence of the Range Busters. Monogram's trio of cowboy heroes are sent for to straighten out the outlaw situation and don't make a good appearance when Bridge, Strange and their gang steal their horses. They get off on the wrong foot, but no keeping a Range Buster down.The usual we can expect is here with Ray Corrigan and Dusty King trying to court Walters and Max Terhune and Elmer with Elmer getting the film's best lines. It's a downer of an ending, but still in the spirit of the matinée kids, in fact there's a moral lesson in it for them.Matinée kids of all ages should still like this one.
classicsoncall
Well no, it's not Billy the Kid, but one named Jimmy Rowell (Edwin Brian), who gets mixed up with a pair of outlaw brothers seeking revenge for a third brother's hanging that sets up the story. Ike (Glenn Strange) and Jim (Al Bridge) Breeden take Jimmy into their confidence by piling him up with gambling debts, then attempt to set him up for the robbery of a local rancher so that he gets caught, convicted and hung as a way to avenge their brother's loss. It was Jimmy's father, a circuit judge who sentenced Bud Breeden to hang, so there's that additional motivation for the bad guys to get their revenge.But wait, not so fast - here comes the Range Busters! They show up in Canyon City at the behest of the town looking to hire some peace officers. Trouble is, they had to make their way there on foot, as their horses were stolen by the outlaw bunch while on the trail. Not a great way to make their introduction, but it does provide a nifty way for Crash Corrigan's horse to identify Bart Gill (Glenn Strange's alter-ego in the picture) as one of the bad guys. From there, it's only a matter of time before Crash, Dusty King, and Max Terhune set things right by nailing the outlaws.The one thing I noticed with this Range Busters flick is that Max 'Alibi' Terhune didn't have much to do except hang around and keep an eye on one outlaw or another after they were put in custody. Consequently, his wooden dummy pal Elmer didn't get much screen time either, although Elmer did manage to sing a few lines of 'It's All Part of the Game' early on. If you keep an eye on Max, his lips don't move at all while doing the ventriloquist gimmick, in fact they're completely pressed shut. How'd he do that? Whenever there's a pretty lady around, you can count on Crash and Dusty trying to outmaneuver each other for her attention. That's the case here, as school teacher Sally Rowell (Luana Walters) invites the boys over to dinner after the skunk incident (you'll have to watch the picture) and Dusty figures out a way to drop in after Crash and Alibi have dinner first. Crash feigns his indignation, but ultimately, this romance goes nowhere. The Range Busters consider themselves mavericks, never staying in one place long enough to settle down. When this adventure was over, they did a noble thing by donating their wages to the town to set up a local community center in memory of Jimmy Rowell. Jimmy didn't make it to the closing credits, as he was gunned down by Breeden's bunch in the final chase scene.
