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Knights of the Range (1940) watch online HD

Original title:Knights of the Range
Category:Movie / Romance / Western
Released:1940
Director:Lesley Selander
Actors:Russell Hayden,Victor Jory,Jean Parker
Writer:Zane Grey,Norman Houston
Duration:1h 10min
Video type:Movie

Rating 6.5: Votes 191

1940 Russell Hayden Victor Jory Jean Parker Lesley Selander

Short summary

Outlaw Frayne is a member of Gamecock's rustlers. When he saves Holly Ripple and Cappy from Heaver's gun, she gives him a job offer and a chance to go straight. Now bringing back Ripple's money from the cattle drive, he is tested when his old gang attacks.

This is one of 20 Zane Grey stories, filmed by Paramount in the 1930s, which they sold to Favorite Films for re-release, circa 1950-1952. The failure of Paramount, the original copyright holder, to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

This film was re-titled 'Bad Men of Nevada' for television distribution, most likely to avoid conflicts with its theatrical re-release which was still in progress in several territories. It was first telecast in New York City Sunday 3 January 1954 on WCBS (Channel 2), in Detroit Friday 19 March 1954 on WXYZ (Channel 7, and in Los Angeles Sunday 14 November 1954 on KRCA (Channel 4); in San Francisco it was first broadcast Wednesday 12 October 1955 on KPIX (Channel 5).

The 20 Zane Grey stories sold by Paramount to Favorite Films for theatrical re-release, and then to Unity Television Corporation for television broadcast are as follows: The Light of Western Stars/Winning the West (1930), Fighting Caravans/Blazing Arrows (1931), Heritage of the Desert/When the West Was Young (1932), The Mysterious Rider/The Fighting Phantom (1933), The Thundering Herd/Buffalo Stampede (1933), Man of the Forest/Challenge of the Frontier (1933), To the Last Man/Law of Vengeance (1933), Wagon Wheels/Caravans West (1934), Rocky Mountain Mystery/The Fighting Westerner (1935), Drift Fence/Texas Desperadoes (1936), Desert Gold/Desert Storm (1936), The Arizona Raiders/Bad Men of Arizona (1936), Arizona Mahoney/Arizona Thunderbolt (1936), Forlorn River/River of Destiny (1937), Thunder Trail/Thunder Pass (1937), Born to the West/Hell Town (1937), The Mysterious Rider/Mark of the Avenger (1938), Heritage of the Desert/Heritage of the Plains (1939), Knights of the Range/Bad Men of Nevada (1940), and The Light of Western Stars/Border Renegade (1940).

User reviews

Author: Beabandis

Harry Sherman, the original producer of the Hopalong Cassidy series at Paramount, occasionally was allowed to produce other westerns and Knights of the Range is one of his. In fact he got to use Russell Hayden and Britt Wood who were Hoppy's current saddle pals as players in this. Add to that Victor Jory who was a villain in a few of the Hoppy films and you practically have a Cassidy oater without Bill Boyd.

Russell Hayden is a likable young cattle rustler who's having some angst about the outlaw business, but it's all he knows. When the owner of a big cattle ranch he was rustling from is killed, he leaves the gang albeit with the blessings of leader Morris Ankrum who treats him like a son.

Victor Jory moves in and takes over the gang and Hayden's duty becomes clear. You haven't seen too many B westerns if you can't figure the rest out.

Hayden at one time was considered prime material for bigger things in the Hollywood cowboy world. However he could never rise above being Lucky Jenkins, Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick. But he certainly was good at that, the young occasionally hotheaded cowboy that Hoppy had to explain the given situation to.

The story is from the pen of Zane Grey our greatest American western writer. Grey's books still sell even if films aren't made from them any more. And he was so prolific, I seriously doubt if the movies filmed all of his work.

Knights of the Range played the bottom half of many a double bill, especially in Red state America. I can see this one at the bottom half of some Gary Cooper film Paramount would have released. Would have fit nicely.

Author: Gralsa

Saw this at the Movie History Museum in Lone Pine California in 2011; Lone Pine was, and still is, a major filming location for westerns and commercials, due to its varied landscape in different parts of the Owens Valley, lake-bed, joshua trees, and giant granite boulders. Zane Grey had written many books, and about half of them were turned into films. This one from 1940 has great sound quality, but less-than-great picture quality. At just over an hour, they squeeze a lot of action and story in this "oater" or "oat burner" (so named, since much of the action is one group chasing another group on horseback.) Due to a low budget and being filmed outdoors on location, the picture quality and the script suffer. A story of a girl in the wild west, Holly (played by Jean Parker) inherits a ranch, but the cattle are being rustled off her property. She crosses paths with Renn (Russell Hayden), who may not be who he seems to be. She needs the help of someone to save the cattle, and she thinks she has found her man.

Also appearing are the Kings Men, a group of singing cowhands, who keep breaking into song; they sang in films for about 20 years, from 1929 - 1949. Directed by Lesley Selander, expert director of westerns... this one one of the SEVEN he made in 1940 alone. Some pretty big names in this one; Parker was "Beth" in Little Women, and Hayden would go on to be the sidekick in Hopalong Cassidy. Also keep an eye out for J. Farrell MacDonald, who was in a TON of westerns - he plays Cappy, the ranch foreman in this one. Looks like this didn't make it to DVD, but maybe Turner Classics will show it. It has all the elements of a classic western, but watch it for the interesting California scenery.

Cast overview:
	Russell Hayden	-	Renn Frayne
	Victor Jory	-	Malcolm Lascalles
	Jean Parker	-	Holly Ripple
	Morris Ankrum	-	Gamecock
	Britt Wood	-	Laigs - Cowhand
	J. Farrell MacDonald	-	Cappy
	Ethel Wales	-	Aunt Myra Ripple
	Rad Robinson	-	Brazos - Cowhand
	Ray Bennett	-	Henchman Heaver (as Raphael Bennett)
	The King's Men	-	Singing Cowhands

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