Lone Ranger - Film Serials

Film Serials

The Lone Ranger serials from Republic Pictures are enigmas to many serial and Lone Ranger fans because they are very rare and hard to find. Only late in 2009 was a complete version of the first serial, in English and with only minor omissions, made available on DVD through the Serial Squadron. Previously, the existing film material for the first serial, The Lone Ranger, was incomplete and either subtitled in Spanish or dubbed in French.

The hero's identity is unknown even to the audience in the original 1938 serial, with six men suspected of being behind the mask. As the chapters unreel, they are killed off one by one, but each actually appears in the costume in various scenes. (The clichéd plot device of the hero's or villain's identity being concealed and multiple candidates being killed off one by one was used in many serials, including Columbia's Flying G-Men and Republic's The Masked Marvel, Manhunt of Mystery Island, and Adventures of Captain Marvel.) As the character played by Lee Powell is ultimately revealed to be the Masked Man, that actor is often given sole credit for the part. Two other suspects were played by Bruce Bennett and George Montgomery, then still billed under their respective birth names of Herman Brix and George Letz.

Prior to the serial's release in 1938, the radio Lone Ranger's origin had been unknown, and hints had been dropped that he might be a historical figure in disguise. An alternate origin for Tonto, with him being rescued in a mine accident, had also been provided on radio. The 1938 serial presented the first version of the canyon ambush, Tonto nursing the Lone Ranger back to health, and the Lone Ranger swearing vengeance for the first time; all these elements were adopted with minor modifications as the origin of the radio and television versions of the character. Much of the familiar transitional music used in the radio series after 1938 also originated in the first Republic serial.

The second serial, The Lone Ranger Rides Again, was released in 1939 and starred Robert Livingston. It gave the Lone Ranger a second companion, a Mexican named Juan, played by Duncan Renaldo (who later starred as The Cisco Kid on television). Livingston wanted his face to be seen onscreen and consequently appears as rancher "Bill Andrews" in most dialogue scenes. Its standard Western plot concerned a battle over land between outlaws and ranchers. The only known copy of this serial was discovered in South America and was Spanish-subtitled. It had been cut together as a long feature and so is missing most opening titles and original cliffhanger ending resolutions.

George W. Trendle disliked the fact that the Lone Ranger appeared without his mask throughout the serial and consequently decided to terminate Republic's license to use the character. He then offered the character to Universal Pictures instead. A third Lone Ranger serial was announced in promotional advertising by Universal, but never produced.

Trendle had the prints of both serials destroyed to prevent their further exhibition after the license expired. Some have suggested that Trendle retained prints of the Lone Ranger serials, but made no effort to store them properly, and they deteriorated. However, Clayton Moore notes in his autobiography, I WAS That Masked Man, that he witnessed the master material for the serials being burned on the Republic Pictures back lot. In any case, only Spanish-subtitled foreign dupe prints of the two Lone Ranger serials survive. The Serial Squadron, an organization which restores classic movie serials, painstakingly reconstructed a subtitle-free English digital video version of the serial in 2007, re-creating the original opening titles and restoring the original cliffhangers.

Given all the differences between the two serials, it is perhaps surprising that Tonto was played in both by Victor Daniels, one of two actors known as Chief Thundercloud.