Adventures of Red Ryder
| The Adventures of Red Ryder | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| 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 |
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Release date
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Running time
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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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