Product Description

Marshal "Crash" Corrigan's first assignment in the town of Sun Dance is to find a missing stagecoach carrying a mine payroll and recover the strongbox full of cash. Outlaw saloon owner Brand Bolton and his henchman who pulled the robbery, booby-trap a stagecoach with a keg of dynamite and Corrigan barely escapes with his life.While the gang and most of the town believe the Marshal to be dead, he recovers from the explosion. With the help of his Range Buster buddies, "Dusty" King and "Alibi" Terhune he continues his pursuit of the bandits.The Range Busters, featuring John King's cowboy songs and Max Terhune's humorous banter with his dummy Elmer, rode alongside Corrigan through more than twenty Western features between 1940 and 1943.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141517 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-01-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 58 minutes

Customer Reviews

This B-Western is annoying - there are better examples of the genre out there
This review is for "Boothill Bandits" issued by Alpha Video. It runs about 56 minutes.

The quality of this film transfer is decent, not great, but adequate considering the age of the film. The film transfer is better than the average issue you generally see of this type of public domain material. The sound quality is also only adequate - you can understand everything o.k., but there is some distortion thoughout the film. The bottom line is that you can watch the film and enjoy it for what it is without being overly distracted by the quality issues. Alpha Video has issued some very bad film transfers, but this is one of their better ones.

As for the film itself, it is supposed to be a clever comedy flavored remake of Tim McCoy's Frontier Crusader (1940), but I gave it just one star because the acting and direction were just plain stupid instead of funny and entertaining. I don't mind if a B-Western is hokey - the Roy Rogers films, for example, are hokey, but still great fun to watch because they take themselves seriously. This film was too obviously tongue-in-cheek for it's own good and ended up being just plain stupid and annoying. The actors just didn't care and clearly didn't take any of this seriously. The plot is also borderline incomprehensible. Many B-Westerns are dumb, but they can still be entertaining. This film is dumb and boring and annoying - a deadly combination.

If you want some really great early B-Westerns, check out virtually any of the Hopalong Cassidy DVDs issued by Platinum or the Red Ryder DVDs issued by VCI - those movies are well done and the quality of the Platinum transfers are particularly first rate.

"Range Busters Series ... Boot Hill Bandits (1942) ... Monogram"
Monogram Pictures presents "BOOT HILL BANDITS" (24 April 1942) (56 mins/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- With the success of Republic's Three Mesquiteers, several forces came together around 1940 to develop a new 'trigger trio' for the screen --- The star was Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, a producer named George W. Weeks and Monogram Pictures --- With a character of his own name. Ray starred in 20 of the 24 films in this series between 1940 and 1943 --- The Range Busters was clearly a lower budget copy of the Mesquiteers --- Big, muscular Ray 'Crash' Corrigan was the lead, the second lead was John 'Dusty' King, a big band singer (Ben Bernie Orchestra) with a reasonably good baritone, who would vocalize a tune or two in each film --- And comic relief was in the hands of ventriloquist Max 'Alibi' Terhune (and his wise-cracking dummy Elmer --- Monogram would distribute the Range Busters but not be directly involved in the productions --- The deal gave Corrigan a substantial share of the film profits (in an interview years later, Ray said he received 50%).

Under the production staff of:
Roy S. Luby - Director
George W. Weeks - Producer
Arthur G. Durlam - Screenwriter
Robert C. Cline - Cinematographer
Frank Sanucci - Musical Direction/Supervision
Roy Claire - Editor
William L. Nolte - Production Manager

Our story line and plot, Our heroes Ray "Crash" Corrigan (Himself), Dusty (John King) and Alibi (Max Terhune) members of the Range Busters have their hands full with Brand Bolton (John Merton) who has his men blow up a wagon carrying the mine payroll and Marshal Crash Corrigan --- He supposedly killed in the explosion as a man finds his badge and gives it to Bolton --- Thinking Crash dead, Bolton gives the badge away and it ends up with the Sheriff --- Turns out Crash is fine and the Range Busters know Bolton is the head of the gang but that he gets his orders from someone else and that is the man they want --- Could it be our honest Mayor Noah Smyth (Budd Buster) is underhanded and dealing from the bottom of the deck --- Seems veteran character actor Glenn Strange is playing the good guy this time and has the evidence to go after all the badmen in this Monogram oater.

the cast includes:
Ray Corrigan ... Marshal 'Crash' Corrigan (as Ray 'Crash' Corrigan)
John 'Dusty' King ... 'Dusty' King
Max Terhune ... 'Alibi' Terhune (as Max 'Alibi' Terhune)
Elmer ... Elmer, Alibi's Dummy
Jean Brooks ... May Meadows
John Merton ... Brand Bolton
Glenn Strange ... Maverick
I. Stanford Jolley ... The Mesquite Kid (as Stanford Jolley)
Steve Clark ... Sheriff Jed Tolliver
George Chesebro ... Henchman 'Stack' Stoner
Richard Cramer ... 'Corn' Hawkins - Bartender (as Dick Cramer)
Budd Buster ... Mayor Noah Smyth
Milburn Morante ... Cameron (as Milt Morante)
Jimmy Aubrey ... The Drunk (as James Aubrey)
Hank Bell ... Stagecoach Driver Hank (uncredited)
Bert Dillard ... Barfly (uncredited)
Jack Evans ... Townsman
Tex Palmer ... Henchman
'Snub' Pollard ... 2nd Bartender
Wally West ... Townsman
Harry Willingham ... Deputy Harry

BIOS:
1. Ray 'Crash' Corrigan (aka: Raymond Benard)
Date of Birth: 14 February 1902 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Date of Death: 10 August 1976 - Brookings Harbor, Oregon

2. John 'Dusty' King (aka: Miller McLeod Everson)
Date of Birth: 11 July 1909 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Date of Death: 11 November 1987 - San Diego, California

3. Max Terhune
Date of Birth: 12 February 1891 - Anderson, Indiana
Date of Death: 5 June 1973 - Los Angeles, California

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure check out other western double features --- Ask Amazon.Com to carry the volumes as they are not available on Amazon as of yet --- you can order and pick up your copy now from VCI Entertainment

RANGE BUSTERS WESTERN DOUBLE FEATURE FROM VCI ENTERTAINMENT
VOL 1 -- WRANGLER'S ROOST & SADDLE MOUNTAIN ROUNDUP - (VCI #7243)
VOL.2 -- FUGITIVE VALLEY & THE KID'S LAST RIDE - (VCI #7349)

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- If you're into the memories of B-Westerns with high drama, this is the one you've been anxiously waiting for --- please stand up and take a bow --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 56 min on VHS/DVD ~ Monogram Pictures ~ (3/01/2001)

One foot in the grave
Specifically regarding the Alpha DVD. The source print was a worn 16mm dupe which is soft and has some missing frames plus a few audio dropouts. It certainly is viewable but better on a small television than a large High Def screen. The soundtrack is adequate with minor distortion. Overall, slightly above average for Alpha.

The film's storyline is pedestrian as is Ray Corrigan. This is standard, low-budget westen fare made during the height of World War II. Obviously, not everyone was rushing off to war, as the Range Busters series was cranked out throughout WW2.

Although this is available on Amazon for less than $3.50 with shipping, it is not worth the price. If you can find it a yard sale or swap meet for a dollar, then buy it.