Western cowboy legend Red Ryder began life as a
comic hero in November of 1938 and ran continuously until 1965 in newspapers
across the country. He was the brain
child of Stephen Slesinger, who had the foresight of acquiring the exclusive
rights to market a loveable little bear by the name of Winnie-the-Pooh, which
would eventually (after his death, his wife took charge) find his way to the
Walt Disney Studios.
Slesinger, who also developed the “King of the Royal
Mounted” comic strip, recruited Fred Harman to illustrate the comic panels … he
did so until his retirement in 1964.
The comic strip for Red Ryder and his sidekick, Little Beaver, was so
successful that it spawned the 12-chapter serial, The
Adventures of Red Ryder in 1940, a prime time
radio series in 1942 (which ran for seven years) and beginning in 1944 a total
of 27 theatrical films featuring Red Ryder and Little Beaver were released.
VCI Entertainment announced this past week that the
last four films in the venerable Red Ryder film
series — which were all filmed in color — will be available on July 30 as the
DVD product offering titled, Red Ryder: The Color Westerns - The
Complete Cinecolor Collection.
We kick off the series with director Lewis Collins’
February of 1949 theatrical release of Ride,
Ryder, Ride, starring Jim Bannon (T-Men,
Johnny O'Clock, The Thirteenth Hour and
star of the 1950s TV series, The Adventures of Champion) as
Red Ryder and child actor Don Reynolds (as an adult he would become a horse
trainer and handler for Hollywood film and TV productions, including the three Lord of
the Rings films) as his sidekick, Little
Beaver. Emmett Lynn co-stars as Buckskin
Blodgett, another Red Ryder sidekick, with the legendary Peggy Stewart (her
film career spanned 75 years and 129 screen credits, including such non-Western
films as The Vampire’s Ghost, The Tiger Woman, The Runaways,
etc.) as a newspaper editor who teams with Red to avenge her brother’s death at
the hands of outlaw Frenchy Beaumont (Edwin Max) and his gang.
In August of 1949, Bannon, Reynolds and Lynn teamed
once again with director Lewis Collins for the second color film in the series,
Roll, Thunder, Roll! The
female lead this time was none other than Nancy Gates, who would go on to star
in such films as Suddenly —
opposite Frank Sinatra — Torch Song, The
Atomic City, Hell’s
Half Acre and writer/director Edward
Bernds’ 1956 sci-fi masterpiece, World Without End.
Others included in the cast of Roll,
Thunder, Roll! are
Glenn Strange (House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Abbott
and Costello Meet Frankenstein), I.
Stanford Jolley and Marin Sais reprises her role as The Duchess (Red Ryder’s
aunt).
In October of 1949 the same core group team up once
again for the release of The Fighting Redhead,
with Peggy Stewart returning as rancher Sheila O’Connor, whose cattle are being
rustled by Faro Savage (John Hart — as Hawkeye in the ‘50s TV series Hawkeye
and the Last of the Mohicans and was the TV version
of The Lone Ranger from 1950 to 1953, when Clayton Moore “went on strike”).
The gang is back for one last ride during Christmas
of 1949 in Cowboy and the Prizefighter,
with Karen Randle (Blonde Dynamite, Mysterious Island) as
the female lead, with John Hart back as another heavy in partnership with none
other than Marshall Reed.
All four of the color films in the venerable Red Ryder film
series are here in one priced-to-own DVD collection … mark it down, July 30, Red
Ryder: The Color Westerns - The Complete Cinecolor Collection.
Bonus features, which are exclusive to the Blu-ray
SKU, are top-lined by commentary from director Adam Shankman (Rock of
Ages, Hairspray, A Walk to Remember, The Wedding Planner),
who also provides an introduction to deleted and extended scenes. 
