Riders of Death Valley:Chapters 1 15

Starring:Chaney, Jones, Carillo
Studio: Alpha Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Could have been better . . . with editing!
Great Serial..Great Cast.
"The King of B-Westerns & Serials...VCI Entertainment ~ Riders of Death Valley (1941)"
Ho hum, ZZZZZZZ.....(Snore)....

Riders of Death Valley:Chapters 1 15
Starring: Jr. Noah Beery , Charles Bickford , Monte Blue , Jean Brooks , and Leo Carrillo
Director: Ford I. Beebe , and Ray Taylor
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007TFIK6
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Customer Reviews:

Could have been better . . . with editing! .......2006-05-25

I managed to finish the Alpha release of RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY. It nearly finished me! If you have to have it, go for the VCI version.

The fuzzy picture was hard enough to watch, but the soundtrack made it seem even worse. Imagine a pad of steel wool being steadily rubbed on the microphone during dialogue scenes. Imagine that the manly strains of "Ride Along," sung from horseback during the opening credits of every chapter, were being played for you at top volume through the one-inch speaker on your kid's old Fisher-Price phonograph. You get the idea.

The serial itself, alternately goofy and tedious, still has much to recommend it. Way too long at fifteen chapters, it nonetheless makes an effort to tell a story with real characters--that is, to give them some shadings here and there that you don't generally expect in a serial. And the actors, most of them well above average, seem to be enjoying the heck out of a quirky script. Light humor is the order of the day among the Riders (good-guy vigilantes who are out to protect miners' interests against corrupt businessmen and their hired guns), with Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Leo Carillo playing a sagebrush version of the Bickersons, while Buck Jones throws in one wisecrack after another (often aimed at Carillo's fractured English). As Pancho, Leo Carillo plays a somewhat feistier version of the Pancho he would play alongside Duncan Renaldo in TV's THE CISCO KID. Watching that series as a child, I had no idea that Carillo had already used the line "Let's went!" seven thousand four hundred and sixty-seven times before--and all in this serial.

Among the heavies, Charles Bickford's Wolfe Reade stands out. A worthy villain--he even scares his own men. Did Bickford do any other serials?

The town to which everyone repairs now and then is called Panamint, which sounds like something you might put on your toothbrush. Every establishing shot of the town shows the same horses clopping down the street and the same old timer sitting in the same spot, puffing on his pipe. Outside of town, the Riders really do seem to be in Death Valley (or on the moon, minus Retik). They ride up and down the most inhospitable-looking crags and outcroppings of rock imaginable; the horses have incredibly solid footing, as if they know that a stumble here would send them immediately to the glue factory. I found myself breathing a sigh of relief whenever they turned a corner and suddenly found themselves among the scrub and familiar boulders of Iverson Ranch, where it was finally safe to be shot from your horse.

This was the "million-dollar serial." They must have spent it on bullets.

Great Serial..Great Cast........2006-01-06

Can`t praise this enough. Great Serial with all the thrills and spills you expect. Wagons over cliffs, Thundering herds ect.And what a cast. Dick Foran who i can never get enough of. A DVD release of his movies are long overdue.The last appearance of the legendary Buck Jones although doubled by Rod Cameron and in some scenes it shows. Leo Carillo as Pancho ten years before he was Cisco`s side kick with wonderful lines like "Lets went" and "I theenk i hear footprints". Two Jr`s Noah Beery and Lon Chaney. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as the wonderfully named Borax Bill. Charles Bickford as Wolf Reade one of the land grabbers and Glenn Strange in a rare clean shaven good guy role. Familiar cast of villians including Monte Blue who i will always remember as Unga Khan in Undersea Kingdom.
Universals first million-dollar production although visibly quite a lot of stock footage is used but thats not a problem everyone did that Gene Autry included. I had already seen a friends copy on video which was very faded and bad quality so naturally i was reluctant to buy it. After reading other reviews about the DVD transfer and quality i bought it and was glad i did. We are possibly seeing it now in better condition than it was seen all those years ago at the Saturday Matinees.
A fast thrilling ride from start to finish.

"The King of B-Westerns & Serials...VCI Entertainment ~ Riders of Death Valley (1941)".......2005-12-08

VCI Entertainment and Universal Pictures present "Riders of Death Valley" (1941) (digitally remastered), 15 Chapters of vintage serial loaded with thrilling drama and high adventure sequences featuring heroes and villains Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo, Buck Jones, Charles Bickford, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Lon Chaney Jr, Noah Beery Jr. Glenn Strange and Roy Barcroft..there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there... It has more of everything with lots of action, hard riding chases and plenty of shootouts...Universal Pictures publicity department reportedly budgeted one million dollars for "Riders of Death Valley", this was an unheard dollar amount for any B-Western.

The "Riders" are a group of stout hearted men protecting local miners from the bad guys of the territory...Jim Benton and Tombstone head up the riders...at the other end of the story we have a pack of wolves lead by Wolf Reade, Kirby and Davis who control the town and want more, meaning gold and total power...Benton has part ownership in the "Lost Aztec Mine" along with Mary Morgan...can Benton fight off Wolf Reade and the other hyenas....each episode gets closer to the answer, watch this and relive those thrilling yesteryears of the Saturday Matinee.

Under director's Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor with screenplay by Sherman Lowe, George H Plympton and Basil Dickey...the cast include Dick Foran (Jim Benton), Leo Carrillo (Pancho Lopez), Buck Jones (Tombstone), Charles Bickford (Wolf Reade), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Borax Bill), Lon Chaney Jr (Butch - Henchman), Noah Beery Jr (Smokey), Jean Brooks (Mary Morgan), James Blaine (Joseph Kirby), Monte Blue (Rance Davis), Glenn Strange (Tex, sidekick toBenton), Roy Barcroft (Dirk - Henchman), Jack Rockwell (Trigger - Henchman)...a character veteran actor Edmund Cobb is cast as a good mine foreman who can't seem to keep Chaney locked up

B-Westerns fans all love and know Leo Carillo who virtually played the same character, better known as Pancho every week in the "Cisco Kid" television series...Dick Foran went on to costar in John Ford westerns...Glenn Strange played the "Frankinestein" monster in various horror films and then became Sam the bartender in the weekly "Gunsmoke" television series....Lon Chaney Jr also went the horror film trail as "The Wolf Man" aka Lyle Talbott...Buck Jones had been around westerns since 1918 would be cast in the "Rough Rider" series just prior to his tragic death in 1942, he was a legend and pioneer in the early B-Westerns...almost a class reunion of B-Western alumni...can't make a good Western without those veterans...don't miss one single episode that will keep you thrilled until the next chapter the following week.

CHAPTER TITLES: (Disc One) (1)
1. Death Marks the Trail
2. The Menacing Herd
3. The Plunge of Peril
4. Flaming Fury
5. The Avalanche of Doom
6. Blood and Gold
7. Death Rides the Storm

SPECIAL FEATURES: (Disc One)
VCI's Photo Gallery::
1. The Lone Ranger "Heigh Yo, Silver" (Serial)
2. Roar of the Iron Horse (Jock O'Mahoney)
3. Fight with Kit Carson (Johnny Mack Brown)
4. Gordon of Ghost City (Buck Jones)
5. The Phantom Empire (Gene Autry)
6. Raiders of Ghost City (Dennis Moore)
7. Riders of Death Valley (stills)
8. The Miracle Rider (Tom Mix)
9. Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley)
10.Mystery Mountain (Ken Maynard)

VCI SERIAL TRAILERS: (Disc One)
1. Riders of Death Valley (Dick Foran & Buck Jones)
2. Winners of the West (Dick Foran)
3. Raiders of Ghost City (Dennis Moore & Joe Sawyer)

BIOS: (Disc One)
1. Dick Foran
2. Buck Jones
3. Leo Carrillo
4. Noah Beery Jr
5. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams
6. Ford Beebe (Director)
7. Ray Taylor (Director)

CHAPTER TITLES (Disc Two) (2)
8. Descending Doom
9. Death Holds the Reins
10.Devouring Flames
11.The Fatal Blast
12.Thundering Doom
13.Bridge of Disaster
14.A Fight to the Death
15.The Harvest of Hate

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:
VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:
1. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)
2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)
3. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)
4. Captain Midnight (Dave O'Brien)
5. Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (Judd Holdren & I. Stanford Jolley)
6. Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)
7. Don Winslow of the Navy (Don Terry)
8. Don Winslow of the Coast Guard (Don Terry)
9. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)
10.Fighting Kit Carson (Johnny Mack Brown)
11.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)
12.The Green Archer (Victory Jory)
13.Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)
14.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)
15.Lost City of the Jungle (Russell Hayden & Keye Luke)
16.Mandrake the Magician (Warren Hull & Dick Curtis)
17.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)
18.The Painted Stallion (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)
19.The Phantom (Tom Tyler)
20.The Return of Chandu (Bela Lugosi)
21.Riders of Death Valley (Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo & Buck Jones)
22.Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)
23.Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)
24.Sky Raiders (Donald Woods & Billy Halop)
25.Undersea Kingdom (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)
26.Winners of the West (Dick Foran, Harry Woods, Roy Barcroft & Charles Stevens)
27.Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)
28.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)

Coming soon January 2006 from VCI Home Video on DVD..."FLAMING FRONTIERS" (1938), Universal Serial with 15 chapters, featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Eleanor Hansen, John Archer, James Blaine and Ralph Bowman..."OREGON TRAIL" (1939), another Universal Serial with 15 exciting chapters featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight, Roy Barcoft and Charles King..."THE TALL TEXAN" (1953), full length feature starring Lloyd Bridges, Lee J Cobb, Luther Adler and Marie Windsor...watch for more details on VCI Entertainment and Amazon your two favorite sites for serials and B-Westerns.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again with a top notch serial from VCI...just the way we like 'em!

Total Time: 287 mins on 2 DVD's ~ VCI Entertainment 8435 ~ (8/30/2005)

Ho hum, ZZZZZZZ.....(Snore)...........2005-11-02

With Buck Jones and Dick Foran as the heroes, accompanied by cowboy sidekicks Leo carillo and Big Boy Williams, and the presence of Lon Chaney Jr and Charles Bickford as villains with support from Richard Alexander (Prince Barin of the Flash Gordon serials)and Roy Barcroft (the one and only Mr Heavy of many serials), how can Universal miss with this "million dollar" serial. But they did BIG TIME. Seeing one chapter after another, you get the feeling that you had seen it before. With but a wee bit change in locale or cirmcumstance, the gunfights, the chases, the ambushes, the fisticuffs are "deja vuish". There is no "trick" to incentivize the viewer to stay on with this serial to the end (i.e., a masked villain or some evil fiend whose idenitity will be revealed in the end). After a ziliion bullets expended during the first 14 chapters with hardly any person getting hit or wounded, suddenly in the last chapter, the heroes become sharpshooters and finish off the villians in a span of one minute of gunfighting. This is absolutely a most boring and insane serial. The Alpha release is also bad in terms of picture quality (not clear and mostly faded) and sound (muffled and unclear at times). If this chapter play was any good, I would have subsequently bought the VCI version (probably with better picture quality and sound at nearly 4 times the price of the Alpha release). But this is a lame and sleepy serial so going through the agony of seeing this once is more than enough.

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