Well there are some good ideas coming out of this Eddie Dean Western but the execution is pretty pathetic. As the picture's hero, Eddie admires and protects the local Indian tribe living in Antelope Valley, but when a young Indian boy is left an orphan after the murder of his parents, Eddie desires to place him with mission padre Father Sullivan (Forrest Taylor) so he could be 'raised right'! The implication that being raised by the tribe wouldn't have been appropriate came across as rather embarrassing, and today would certainly be deemed racist.
Perhaps the most baffling thing about the story has to do with the principal characters interacting with each other. It's rather stagy for the most part, but what's really strange is the way they consistently smile at each other while delivering their lines. It could be about the most serious topic imaginable, and they're just grinning away happy as you please. I found it unusually distracting.
But the worst part of the story for me, and I'm sure for most viewers, was why in the world would you have one of the picture's main villains shoot down a little kid? You have to keep in mind that these films were put together on a shoestring budget and were meant to appeal to a pre-teen audience back in the Forties. What was a youngster supposed to think when they saw someone their own age gunned down in a Western? That had to be somewhat troubling, don't you agree? And to think, college students today are demanding safe places on campus against harmful speech!
Now here's some interesting trivia I've picked up along the way watching these old time oaters. The young Indian boy in the picture was given the name Little Brown Jug by Eddie and his sidekick Ezra (Emmett Lynn). He was portrayed by a youngster named Don Reynolds who grew up in a rodeo family and learned to ride at the age of three. He had cousins nicknamed Whitey and Blackie, and so Don became Brownie.
The Little Brown Jug handle came about for real when Don and his Dad visited a friend in Texas, and a Glenn Miller song titled 'Little Brown Jug' was playing, and the name stuck. If you wind up catching a handful of Durango Kid flicks made after this one, Don is actually credited in the pictures as Little Brown Jug. Apparently he grew up maintaining a fondness for cowboys and horses, and believe it or not, is credited as a horse trainer on all three 'Lord of the Rings' movies!
Perhaps the most baffling thing about the story has to do with the principal characters interacting with each other. It's rather stagy for the most part, but what's really strange is the way they consistently smile at each other while delivering their lines. It could be about the most serious topic imaginable, and they're just grinning away happy as you please. I found it unusually distracting.
But the worst part of the story for me, and I'm sure for most viewers, was why in the world would you have one of the picture's main villains shoot down a little kid? You have to keep in mind that these films were put together on a shoestring budget and were meant to appeal to a pre-teen audience back in the Forties. What was a youngster supposed to think when they saw someone their own age gunned down in a Western? That had to be somewhat troubling, don't you agree? And to think, college students today are demanding safe places on campus against harmful speech!
Now here's some interesting trivia I've picked up along the way watching these old time oaters. The young Indian boy in the picture was given the name Little Brown Jug by Eddie and his sidekick Ezra (Emmett Lynn). He was portrayed by a youngster named Don Reynolds who grew up in a rodeo family and learned to ride at the age of three. He had cousins nicknamed Whitey and Blackie, and so Don became Brownie.
The Little Brown Jug handle came about for real when Don and his Dad visited a friend in Texas, and a Glenn Miller song titled 'Little Brown Jug' was playing, and the name stuck. If you wind up catching a handful of Durango Kid flicks made after this one, Don is actually credited in the pictures as Little Brown Jug. Apparently he grew up maintaining a fondness for cowboys and horses, and believe it or not, is credited as a horse trainer on all three 'Lord of the Rings' movies!