The Vigilantes Are Coming | |
---|---|
Directed by |
Ray Taylor Mack V. Wright |
Produced by | Nat Levine |
Written by |
Maurice Geraghty Winston Miller John Rathmell Leslie Swabacker |
Starring |
Robert Livingston Kay Hughes Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams Raymond Hatton Fred Kohler Robert Warwick William Farnum Bob Kortman |
Music by | Arthur Kay |
Cinematography |
Edgar Lyons William Nobles |
Edited by |
Dick Fantl Helene Turner |
Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release date
|
Early 1950s (TV) |
Running time
|
12 chapters (229 minutes (serial) 6 26½-minute episodes (TV) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $82,616 (negative cost: $87,655) |
The Vigilantes Are Coming is a 1936 American Republic film serial. It was the third of the sixty six serials made by Republic Pictures (and the third released in 1936).
This serial was filmed between 28 May and 17 June 1936 under the working title of The Vigilantes. It was released two months later, on 22 August 1936, under the final title. In the early 1950s the serial was re-edited into six 26½ minute episodes for television.
Following the discovery of gold in Mexican California in 1844, Russian Cossacks led by Count Ivan Raspinoff, in collusion with General Jason Burr, attempt to invade California and turn it into a Russian Colony with Burr as its dictator. In doing so they round up slaves to work the mines and General Burr has Don Loring's brother and father murdered to acquire their ore-rich land.
When Don returns, having been away at the time with Salvation, Whipsaw and Captain John Fremont, he assumes the masked identity of The Eagle to stop them and get his revenge.
He is aided by a group of vigilantes assembled from the Californian ranchers, fighting both General Burr's henchmen and Raspinoff's Cossacks, while awaiting the arrival of Captain Fremont's American troops before the colony becomes official.
Stedman states that The Vigilantes Are Coming "was a reworking of The Eagle, Rudolph Valentino's silent film." Harmon and Glut expand on that to say it was based on Zorro and The Lone Ranger Rides Again in addition to Valentino's The Eagle. However, no mention is made of this being a derivative work in William Witney's autobiography.