Surprisingly incoherent and boring

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Appearing on British television some time after 'The Lone Ranger', Jock Mahoney's character was a consistently less-super and therefore more believable incarnation of the western hero. For one thing; he dressed in a more homely buckskin outfit, without the showy belt of double six-guns. His horse looked more like a cowboy's horse and less like a circus-prop. He also had unfashionably long hair that often became lank and untidy in a brawl.He wasn't a dead-shot. He didn't wear a mask. And he often took a good hiding when he fought - though he invariably won. In short; he was a Real Bloke and not a camp fantasy icon like 'The Lone Ranger'. Dick West, on the other hand, was a whining juvenile bore who served as the fall guy. Nowhere nearly as cerebral, mature or interesting as TLR's Tonto, he provided the light humour of the show and seemed to have a hint of 'Bowery Boys' about him.Although these characters have never had the enduring popularity of 'Roy Rodgers', or 'The Lone Ranger', they were a lot more believable for all that, and crammed a whole adventure into just 30 minutes. I haven't seen any of these characters since I was a kid, but I'm willing to bet that 'The Range Rider' still offers the best entertainment.

Jack or Jock Mahoney as he was known depending on what point in his career he was played The Range Rider for a few seasons on television. The show was part of Gene Autry's Flying Crown stable of television shows.I remember The Range Rider because of the fact that Mahoney really did favor the old fashioned frontiersman manner of dress. Other than a cowboy hat and the regulation six shooter, he wore buckskins and Indian moccasins. His youthful companion Dick West favored the more traditional cowboy garb, in fact his outfit was black like Hopalong Cassidy's. We never did learn what the Range Rider's real name was. He just rode into town with Dick, righted the wrongs and left all in 30 minutes with commercial breaks. Dick Jones who played Dick West was in fact a good rider himself, he could match Jock Mahoney's stuntman background in many ways. As a child actor you might remember him best for being the young Senate page who sported a Boy Ranger badge in the Senate and encouraged Jimmy Stewart to fight on. He was also the kid who died on the gold wagon train heading east in Virginia City. But it was a good thing he could ride and shoot because he was annoying. I guess the Range Rider put up with it as coming with the territory.Jock Mahoney later went on to become Yancey Derringer and later on was one of Hollywood's Tarzans. He might not have had the physique of Johnny Weissmuller or Gordon Scott, but the man was athletic as all get out.Thanks to Gene Autry for bringing us the Range Rider when I was a lad.

I used to watch this show when it came on Sunday nights about 6 or 6:30 p.m. Ironically, this was the same time as Roy Rogers came on, and he was my hero. I don't think we either got the right channel or perhaps we didn't have a TV at the time. Anyway, the Range Rider was sponsored by Table Talk pies, those kind that your mother could put in your lunchbox. They had fruit fillings and a awful of crust. They work great in school cafeteria food fights. Anyway, Jock Mahoney would come on after the show to do the commercial and he would say something like "Have Mom pick up several flavors the next time she goes shopping, and don't forget to save the lemon for Dad." Mahoney later told the story of how he was stopped on the street one day by a guy who said how much his kids liked the show and complimented Mahoney. Jocko smiled and then the guy said, "but that part about saving the lemon pie for Dad. I actually liked the other flavors. I can't stand the lemon pie." Enjoyed Jocko doing the crouper mount (where the rider runs up to the horse and vaults into the saddle). We used to do that on the seesaw at school until somebody at the other end would step off. We would come down hard and then walk around bowlegged for a while. Oooh, man, that smarts.

This was one of my favorite westerns on early television. As I remember, it either preceded or followed "The Lone Ranger" on Saturday nights where I lived in northern Arkansas. It somewhat resembled the Red Ryder series in that The Range Rider was the hero with a youngster as a sidekick. Instead of the Native American youth "Little Beaver," played inevitably by a non-Native American, Dick Jones played Dick West. At times Dick West was more of a Batman's Robin rather than a "Little Beaver." This Gene Autry production starred famous stuntman Jock Mahoney, stepfather of Sally Fields, as the Range Rider, determined to bring justice to the American frontier. He was now billed as Jack Mahoney and being the star did few stunts.The show could be counted on to deliver 30 minutes minus commercials of action and adventure. Because Jack Mahoney was so tall, Dick West looked diminutive (he was in reality of average height) and much younger than he really was.