Best movie of this year hands down!

One of my all time favorites.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Directors: FORD BEEBE, RAY TAYLOR. Screenplay: George Plympton, Sherman L. Lowe, Basil Dickey, Jack O'Donnell. Story: Oliver Drake. Photography: Jerome Ash and William A. Sickner. Supervising film editor: Saul A. Goodkind. Film editors: Joseph Gluck, Louis Sackin, Alvin Todd. Music director: Charles Previn. Dialogue director: Jacques Jaccard. Stunts: Leroy Johnson. Associate producer: Henry MacRae.Individual chapters copyright on various dates from 6 March 1941 to 21 April 1941 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. U.S. release: 1 July 1941. Each chapter consists of two reels. Total running time: 283 minutes.Chapter titles: (1) Death Marks the Trail; (2) Menacing Herd; (3) Plunge of Peril; (4) Flaming Fury; (5) Avalanche of Doom; (6) Blood and Gold; (7) Death Rides the Storm; (8) Descending Doom; (9) Death Holds the Reins; (10) Devouring Flames; (11) Fatal Blast; (12) Thundering Doom; (13) The Bridge of Disaster; (14) A Fight to the Death; (15) The Harvest of Hate. SYNOPSIS: An old prospector discovers a lost gold mine which he deeds to his niece, Mary Morgan. Jim Benton and his riders offer to help Mary locate the mine and then work it for their mutual profit. A gang of outlaws in cahoots with two crooked saloon owners have other ideas.COMMENT: Despite assembling a colorful cast headed by two of our favorite cowboy heroes (Dick Foran and Buck Jones), who are pitted against two of the wickedest heavies in the business (Charles Bickford and Chaney Junior), this turns out to be a tame, lack- luster, repetitious serial with slender plot ideas and cumbersome comic relief. It's hard to believe that experienced writers like the five gentlemen credited here were unable to exercise their collective imagination and could come up with nothing more exciting than this disappointing charade. The chapter titles themselves indicate the general poverty of their invention. "Death" figures no less four times, "Doom" three times, and "Flaming/Flames" almost twice! It's particularly sad to see a fine talent like Buck Jones wasted in what amounts to a straw man supporting role with no fiber at all. What's worse, the action often grinds to a halt to allow that classic ham, Leo Carillo, leave to ham away with his phony but totally "unfunny" Mexican impersonation.It's hard to pick out a view-able yet representative chapter. Admittedly, two or three in which the action gets stuck in a mine are particularly boring, but the others plumb the depths of mediocrity and scale no heights at all. Just try the first and the last. They will give you a good idea of the quality of the serial as a whole. The "first million-dollar serial," Universal proudly proclaimed at the time of its initial release. Well, it may have cost a packet in players, extras and locations, but any Mascot effort you name delivers at least ten times the thrills and excitements. True, "Riders" does boast a great theme song. That's just the trouble. The credits promise bags of gold but deliver only a few drops of gloss.

I'm not a fan of movie serials in general. I think it's an art form that has come and thankfully gone. Especially a western serial like this where Universal Pictures got an interesting name cast for Riders Of Death Valley.The plot is one that could have been used for a good B western. Dick Foran and Buck Jones head the Riders Of Death Valley, a vigilante outfit formed because the law is ineffective against ruthless outlaws like Charles Bickford and Lon Chaney, Jr. The whole serial is longer than Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments sound version and not nearly as good. The first part is Foran and company battling Bickford to locate a lost mine. The second part is Foran trying to work his mine and at the same time meet his financial obligations.Through fifteen chapters Foran manages to survive, a landslide, a desert sandstorm, a mine accident, stampeding horses, and a framed murder charge. Just one is enough for any cowboy hero.Serials were never meant to be viewed as I did on a DVD at home. 20 or so minute chapters every week back in the old days. But even at that I suspect they're no better.With a length longer than a biblical spectacle, it must have taken Universal a long time and a big budget to film Riders Of Death Valley. It was a waste of time.

The town of Panamint is being controlled by Kirby and Blake who are trying to drive out all the prospectors so they can obtain all their land, but are opposed by the Riders of Death Valley, a group led by Jim Benton opposed to the oppression caused by Kirby and Blake. An old prospector, Chuckawalla Charlie, leaves one half of a claim on a gold mine, The Lost Aztec, which is richer than any other mine discovered. The mine is shared also with Charlie's niece Mary, who goes searching for the mine (based on Charlie's map) with Jim and the rest of the riders. Blake sends Wolfe Reade and his outlaws to get the map giving the location of the mine, but after Jim, Mary, and the riders find it, Blake & Kirby get Wolfe to sabotage their efforts of getting the lode mined, smeltered, and assayed, while Kirby tries obtains the bank note Jim took out to pay for the work on the mine, while also framing Jim and Tombstone (fellow rider) of the murder of the banker. This "million dollar serial" is just advertising and nowhere near the effort Universal put into Flash Gordon, but for B western fans this serial is a treat. Foran makes a good hero, but I would have rather seen Buck Jones assume his role rather than be regulated to a sidekick. Blaine and Blue are okay as Kirby and Blake, but the screenplay could have just merged the two characters into one. Bickford is great as Wolfe playing the role with a nastiness that should be in every western and serial. The serial seems a bit too involved at times as well. Rating, based on serials, 7.

Universal reportedly budgeted one million dollars for "Riders of Death Valley" a sum unheard of in "B" movie circles. It has more of everything..a large cast, extensive location shots, lots of action, plenty of chases and shootouts etc. In spite of the grand scale, there are also plenty of the usual "B" movie cliches. There are obvious stock footage shots used, nobody can hit the broadside of a barn (on both sides of the law) and... well there's just too much overkill in trying to raise this serial above the norm.The plot is simple. The "Riders" of the title are a group of riders protecting local miners from the bad guys. Heading up the riders are Jim Benton and his pal Tombstone (Dick Foran, Buck Jones). Opposing them are Wolf Reade (Charles Bickford) and his "wolf pack" backed up by "respectable town citizens" Kirby and Davis (James Blaine, Monte Blue). Benton acquires joint ownership in the "Lost Aztec Mine" with heroine Mary (Jeanne Kelly) and the rest of the story concerns their efforts to hold on to their property.Dick Foran who appears to do most of his own action scenes, makes a likeable hero in the lead. The legendary Buck Jones, who had been around westerns since 1918, was about to re-start his career after this one in the "Rough Rider" series just prior to his tragic death in 1942. Jones, getting along in years, is visibly doubled (by Rod Cameron I'm told) in virtually all of his action and riding scenes.Rounding out the "Riders" are Leo Carillo playing virtually the same character, Pancho that he would portray in the "Cisco Kid" series, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as "Borax", Glenn Strange as "Tex" and Noah Berry Jr. as "Smokey", a character we hardly ever see. Veteran Edmund Cobb plays the mine foreman who can't seem to keep the baddies locked up.On the wrong side of the law, this serial was elevated a notch by the casting of Bickford (in black hat and mustache) as the chief villain. As far as I know, this was his only "B" western. His "Wolf Pack" includes such luminaries as Lon Chaney Jr. (wasted again), Roy Barcroft and Dick Alexander.All in all though, "Riders of Death Valley" is one of the better western serials of the period, although Republic Pictures probably could have done it better with less.