The Legend of the Lone Ranger ** (1981, Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse, Christopher Lloyd, Matt Clark, Jason Robards) – Classic Movie Review 6161

‘Who was that masked man?’ ‘I don’t know, he was wearing a mask!’ With a half-hearted hearty heigh-ho Silver, Klinton Spilsbury dons Clayton Moore’s old mask as the Lone Ranger in director William A Fraker’s poorly developed 1981 Western adventure hokum movie about the previously untold story origins of the Masked Avenger and his Native American sidekick Tonto (Michael Horse).

It moves on to a tale of how Spilsbury’s John Reid, aka the Lone Ranger, rides to the rescue when the evil Major Bartholomew ‘Butch’ Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) nabs the American President Ulysses S Grant (Jason Robards).

In adapting George W Trendle’s stories, the five scriptwriters (Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts, Michael Kane, William Roberts and Jerry Berloshan) don’t know whether to take it seriously or go for parody. And a dubbed Spilsbury and Horse cannot in any way erase fond, happy memories of vintage TV’s Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels.

It must count as a missed opportunity, but the movie does look good thanks to Laszlo Kovacs’s moody cinematography, the score by John Barry and Albert Brenner’s production designs are great, the support acting is sold, and there is enough of the requisite cowboy action and Western scenery on screen.

Overall, it might be fine for older children.

In an attempt, perhaps, to give it some historical authority, real-life characters are integrated into the fictional plot. Richard Farnsworth plays Wild Bill Hickok, Lincoln Tate plays General George A Custer and Ted Flicker plays Buffalo Bill Cody.

Also in the cast are Matt Clark as Sheriff Wiatt, John Bennett Perry as Ranger Captain Dan Reid, Juanin Clay as Amy Striker, John Hart as Lucas Striker, Marc Gilpin as Young John Reid, Patrick Montoya as Young Tonto, David Bennett as General Aurelio Rodriguez and Tom Laughlin.

It comes from Sir Lew Grade’s ITC, so, for better or worse, it is another British Western, to put alongside Shalako, Carry On Cowboy and A Town Called Bastard.

It was rebooted, unsuccessfully, as The Lone Ranger in 2013.

Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels had a couple of cinema features back in the day: The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6161

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