Treachery Rides the Range (1936) - Dusty, Silly, and Short

If you have got 50 minutes to kill and love old-school dusty Westerns, Treachery Rides the Range is a fun little relic. But if you hate corny singing cowboys and obvious stock footage, please stay far away. 🤠

It is basically a Saturday matinee special from 1936 that feels like it was filmed over a single long weekend. It's greatest strength is probably how fast it moves.

The plot is simple enough for a kid to follow. Some bad guys want buffalo hides, so they decide to trick the local tribe into going to war so the treaty gets broken.

Enter Dick Foran, the "Singing Cowboy" himself. He plays Red, a guy who somehow keeps his hair perfectly combed while riding horses through the dirt.

And yes, he does sing to his horse. It is incredibly goofy but you cannot help but smile. 🎶

Speaking of the horses, there is so much riding in this movie. Just people galloping from left to right, then right to left.

I am pretty sure they used the same hill three different times to save money. Or maybe they just really liked that hill.

Also, keep an eye out for Jim Thorpe. Yes, that Jim Thorpe, the Olympic legend, playing a chief named Chief Leather Cloud.

He does not say much, but his presence is still cool to see. He just stands there looking stoic while everyone else overacts.

This is not trying to be some heavy, artistic masterpiece like Death Takes a Holiday. It is just pure, cheap entertainment.

The buffalo scenes are particularly hilarious because the film quality suddenly drops. You can instantly tell when they spliced in dusty old documentary footage of buffalo.

The contrast goes wild and suddenly there is tons of grain on the screen. It is like watching two different movies stitched together with Scotch tape.

The villains, Carter and Barton, are delightfully bad. They just stand around in vests looking sneaky and talking about their evil contracts.

When they kidnap the Colonel's daughter, the movie tries to get serious. But the pacing is just too fast for actual tension to build up.

It has that cheap, fast-paced energy you get in old-school action flicks like The Gun Runners. Just with bows and arrows instead of machine guns.

Anyway, the whole thing wraps up so fast you barely have time to process the ending. But that is the charm of these old B-Westerns.

Didja notice?

• The chief's feathers look a bit floppy during the big chase.
• Dick Foran’s horse, Smoke, definitely deserves top billing. He is the best actor in the whole thing! 🐴
• The gunfights have that classic 1930s sound effect that sounds like a whip cracking instead of a gunshot.

Give it a watch if you want some brainless, vintage fun. Just do not expect anything deep.