You won't be disappointed!
Overrated
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
View MoreAmazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
View MoreThough The Range Rider is far from being what I would consider a great TV Western, it is a fairly enjoyable and good-natured program, all the same.Starring Jack Mahoney, as the heroic title character, this show also stars Dickie Jones, as "Rider's" all-American sidekick, Dick West.Featuring plenty of hard-riding action, bare-knuckle brawling and gun-play galore (as well as some cornball humour thrown in for good measure), The Range Rider's emphasis was on rugged masculinity with story-lines (though sometimes convoluted) that were oftentimes quite plausible.Showcasing some really excellent stunt-work, The Range Rider (which ran from 1951-1953) was filmed in b&w. Its episodes were all 30 minutes in length.
View MoreAppearing 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.
View MoreJack 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.
View MoreThis 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.
View More