Review of Cyclone of the Saddle

Cherokee Charlie (George Chesebro) and Snake (Yakima Canutt), a french-accented whip-wielder, are selling rifles to the Indians. To stop this, the Army sends agent Andy Thomas (Rex Lease), who poses as a sombrero-wearing renegade and adds a highlight for the audience trying to decide if his Spanish-accent is worse than Canutt's French accent. It isn't. Andy, Charlie and Snake converge on a wagon train which is under attack. Pa Carter (George Morrell, who shows up later as a soldier)is killed and Andy is attracted to his daughter Sue (Janet Chandler) and makes a buddy out of her younger raccoon-hat wearing brother Dickie(Bobby Nelson.) Andy, claiming to be from Taos, proves he a real cyclone of the saddle by riding Cherokee's horse (played by Black Fox the Marvel Horse, according to the credits, and owned by rodeo-performer Mable Strickland), and winning him on a bet. This ticks Charlie off,and he has Snake attach a knife to the end of his whip---the backlash is deadly if there is a miss---and kill two Indians to start an uprising. The Range Ranglers (Jack Kirk, Glenn Strange, Jack Jones and Chuck Baldra, employing another offshoot name used by "The Arizona Wranglers" band)sing four songs---"Going' Home", "The Old Wagon Train", "There's No Place Like Home" and "Range Riders"---which may or may not be in some of the chopped-up video tape versions of the film. Written by Les Adams {longhorn3708@windstream.net}