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Adventures of Red Ryder

The Adventures of Red Ryder
Advredryder.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by William Witney
John English
Produced by Hiram S. Brown Jr
Written by Franklin Adreon
Ronald Davidson
Norman S. Hall
Barney A. Sarecky
Sol Shor
Starring Don "Red" Barry
Noah Beery
Tommy Cook
Maude Pierce
Vivian Coe
Harry Worth
Hal Taliaferro
Music by Cy Feuer
William Lava
Paul Sawtell
Cinematography William Nobles
Edited by William P. Thompson
Edward Todd
Distributed by Republic Pictures
Release date
  • June 28, 1940 (1940-06-28)
Running time
12 chapters / 211 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $144,852 (negative cost: $145,961)

The Adventures of Red Ryder (1940) is a 12-chapter Republic movie serial starring Don "Red" Barry and Noah Beery, Sr. based on the Western comic strip Red Ryder. It was directed by William Witney and John English. This serial was the 18th of the 66 serials produced by Republic. Westerns made up a third of all serials produced by the studio.

The plot follows a standard B-Western pattern of a villain trying to run the legitimate owners off their valuable land. In this case, the value comes from the building of a railroad. 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.

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 (a $1,109, or 0.8%, overspend). 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.

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.

Source:

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.


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