Adventures of Red Ryder

The Adventures of Red Ryder is a 1940 American 12-chapter movie serial from Republic Pictures, directed by William Witney and John English and starring Don "Red" Barry and Noah Beery, Sr., based on the Western comic strip Red Ryder by Fred Harmon. This serial is the 18th of the 66 serials produced by Republic.

Plot

A gang, led by banker Calvin Drake, plans to drive off ranchers from their land to profit from a railroad. However, on one of these ranches, the Circle R, lives the Ryder family who resist the gang. After his father, Tom, is killed by One Eye Chapin, Red Ryder swears revenge and sets out to defeat the gang once and for all.

Cast

Donald "Red" Barry as Red Ryder. Donald Barry retained the nickname from this serial as Don "Red" Barry.
Noah Beery as Ace Hanlon
Tommy Cook as Little Beaver
Maude Pierce Allen as Duchess Ryder
Vivian Coe as Beth Andrews
Harry Worth as Calvin Drake
Hal Taliaferro as Cherokee Sims
William Farnum as Colonel Tom Ryder
Bob Kortman as One-Eye Chapin
Carleton Young as Sheriff Dade
Ray Teal as Shark
Gene Alsace as Deputy Lawson
Gayne Whitman as Harrison
Hooper Atchley as Commissioner Treadway
John Dilson as Hale
Lloyd Ingraham as Sheriff Luke Andrews
Charles Hutchinson as Brown
Gardner James as H.S. Barnett
Wheaton Chambers as Boswell
Lynton Brent as Len Clark
Production

The Adventures of Red Ryder was based on Fred Harman's comic strip. The serial was budgeted at $144,852 although the final negative cost was $145,961. 1940 was the first year in which Republic's overall spending on serial production was less than in the previous year. It was filmed between 27 March and 25 April 1940. The serial's production number was 997. The special effects were created by the Lydecker brothers, Republic's in-house effects team.

Stunts

Theatrical

The Adventures of Red Ryder's official release date is 28 June 1940, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.

Chapter titles

Murder on the Santa Fe Trail
Horsemen of Death
Trail's End
Water Rustlers
Avalanche
Hangman's Noose
Framed
Blazing Walls
Records of Doom
One Second to Live
The Devil's Marksman
Frontier Justice

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This was one of two 12-chapter serials produced by Republic in 1940. The other is the following King of the Royal Mounted, also based on a comic strip. Republic's standard pattern was two 12-chapter serials and two 15-chapter serials in each year.