Lightning Range on AllMovie

Poverty Row entrepreneur Victor Adamson (hiding behind the pseudonym of Denver Dixon) once again managed to release a completely incomprehensible Western filled to the brim with tired old clichés and the most wooden acting this side of cigar-store Indians. Silent screen cowboy Buddy Roosevelt reached perhaps the nadir of his career with this film, in which he plays a deputy marshal trailing a gang of claim jumping murderers lead by pudgy Olin Francis. There is something about a girl (Patsy Bellamy), who must marry in order to cash in on an inheritance; a scheming woman (Anne Howard), who wants the valuable land for herself; and sundry other Western shenanigans, few of which, when strung together by the inept Adamson, make any sense. Strangely, most of the action is sans hero Roosevelt, who remains nameless and is knocked out cold early on in the proceedings. The tired comedy relief is provided by the toothless Si Jenks, and the director briefly appears, Hitchcock style, as a townsman. Typically, supporting actor Bartlett Carré's name is misspelled in the film's credits. Although released in 1934, Lightning Range was filmed a year earlier.