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Pirates of the Prairie (1942) Online

Pirates of the Prairie (1942) Online
1942 Tim Holt Cliff Edwards Nell ODay Howard Bretherton
Original Title :
Pirates of the Prairie
Genre :
Movie / Music / Western
Year :
1942
Directror :
Howard Bretherton
Cast :
Tim Holt,Cliff Edwards,Nell O'Day
Writer :
Doris Schroeder,J. Benton Cheney
Type :
Movie
Time :
57min
Rating :
5.9/10

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Pirates of the Prairie (1942) Online

This film opens with two small Arizona towns, Spencerville and East Spencerville, separated by a dry gulch and a feud, and governed by a Vigilante Committee. Lew Harmon, committee member and also leader of the crooked element, is using the masked band for his own purpose to terrorize ranchers, and to grab the land and force the railroad to pay high right-of-way prices. Deputy U.S. Marshal Larry Durant, sent to investigate, poses as a gunsmith, and is ordered out of town by Harmon. Helen Spencer, the banker's daughter, discovers the railroad survey is finished and later, Harmon tricks Ike into telling him where the line will run. Larry trails Harmon's henchmen to East Spencerville and breaks up an extortion scheme. This convinces banker John Spencer of the treachery of Harmon and the vigilantes, but he is killed by Harmon before he can disband the committee. Larry, after Ike is wounded trying to help him, rounds up the citizens of East Spencerville and sets a trap for the criminals.
Complete credited cast:
Tim Holt Tim Holt - Deputy Marshal Larry Durant
Cliff Edwards Cliff Edwards - Ike (as Cliff 'Ukulele Ike' Edwards)
Nell O'Day Nell O'Day - Helen Spencer
John Elliott John Elliott - John Spencer (as John H. Elliott)
Roy Barcroft Roy Barcroft - Lew Harmon
Karl Hackett Karl Hackett - Rufe Jackson
Ed Cassidy Ed Cassidy - Chief Surveyor Allen (as Edward Cassidy)
Charles King Charles King - Henchman Layton

1942 was a banner year for Tim Holt. He starred in seven B westerns - more than any other year in his prolific career. Pirates of the Prairie was the sixth movie of the seven, followed by Red River Robin Hood.

This is a remake of George O'Brien's 1940 western 'Legion of the Lawless', released just two years earlier. Many of the scenes and much of the dialog are taken directly from the previous film's script. Several of Tim Holt's westerns are remakes of previous features starring George O'Brien, such as O'Brien's 1938 'The Renegade Ranger', which was remade in 1942 as Tim Holt's 'Come on Danger'. Tim Holt actually co-starred with George O'Brien in the 1938 film.


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Conjukus

Conjukus

Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Holt is sent to a part of Texas where a committee of vigilantes rule the roost. They've had a kind of unofficial sanction to operate in the area as there is no regularly constituted law. But there've been complaints of late so Tim is asked to investigate and put them out of business if necessary.

It sure is necessary all right. Western villain Roy Barcroft has taken over the vigilantes to use in a scheme to get land for a railroad depot and right-of-way.

For a bunch of films that Holt made at this time for RKO where he was their B western cowboy star, he had for a sidekick Cliff 'Ukelele Ike' Edwards. Note that in several films in this time period before Holt went to war, Edwards was used. He was a big singing star in the twenties whose career was on the skids until Walt Disney used him as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio. Edwards was the voice behind When You Wish Upon A Star, the Academy Award winning song of 1940. He then settled back into doing B films and lower for the rest of his film career. After Holt got out of the service he used Richard Martin as Chito Rafferty, his most famous sidekick.

Tim Holt always had straight forward B westerns with no subtle shadings of gray in the characters. This one is no different.
caster

caster

This Tim Holt western is a remake of the 1940 LEGION OF THE LAWLESS, starring George O'Brien, Holt's predecessor as RKO's leading B western star. The plot is a good one, about Tim Holt being sent to deal with the vigilantes who are ruining the town, and Cliff Edwards (best known today as the voice of Jiminy Cricket) is on hand for comic relief and the occasional song. Holt is still a little callow for the lead in a western, but he has a few good moments and the gloss of good writing, some nice photography by Nick Musuraca and post production carry it along for the hour that it takes.

The westerns were the most conservative of movies and it shows in the occasional iris cuts. But some of that may be laid at the feet of director Breatherton, who directed B movies, mostly westerns, for a quarter of a century and who started out as an editor -- the ability to 'cut in the camera' led to an efficiently shot production. The result here is a fairly attractive western for fans of the genre.