The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) Collection

Clayton Moore

Jay Silverheels

Lyle Bettger

Bonita Granville

Perry Lopez

Robert J. Wilke

John Pickard

Beverly Washburn

Michael Ansara

Frank De Kova

Charles Meredith

Mickey Simpson

Zon Murray

Lane Chandler

Malcolm Atterbury

Kermit Maynard

Jack Mower

Buddy Roosevelt

William Schallert

Robert B. Williams

Rush Williams

Stuart Heisler

Herb Meadow

Willis Goldbeck

Jack Wrather

David Buttolph

Clarence Kolster

Edwin B. DuPar

Stanley Fleischer

M.A. Merrick

G.W. Berntsen

Gordon Bau

Robert Farfan

C.M. Florance

Adventure

Western

The Lone Ranger

Wrather Productions

Warner Bros. Pictures

United States of America

Mature picture moves away from serial silliness.

The Lone Ranger is directed by Stuart Heisler and written by Herb Meadow and George W. Trendle. It stars Clayton Moore, Jay Silverheels, Lyle Bettger, Bonita Granville, Perry Lopez, Robert J. Wilke and John Pickard. Music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by Edwin B. DuPar.

Wealthy rancher Reese Kilgore (Bettger) aims to grab silver-rich Indian land by skilfully pitting Indians against settlers, but the suspicious territorial governor sends The Lone Ranger (Moore) to investigate. 

I think most of us Western fans of a certain age remember fondly The Lone Ranger TV series, and with that we obviously remember it as being child friendly. So it's reasonable to expect this filmic version as being more of the same? Yet although it is of course safe for the kiddies to enjoy, it's very mature in narrative terms.

It's not an origin movie, though the screenplay allows space for us to get the birth of the masked man as it were. Naturally we are in the realm of the good versus the bad, but as we deal with bile strewn racial prejudices, we also get the flip side in the form of the strong friendship between Lone Ranger and Tonto (Silverheels).

Pic is crammed full of lush locations, fast paced action, plenty of fights - both with fists and weaponry - stock genre characters, and two of the coolest horses in genre lore. All that and the signature William Tell Overture music that brings simultaneously a smile to the face and a tingle to the youthful spine in all of us. Hooray! 7/10

English

Lone Ranger, The - Trailer (1956)