Riders of Death Valley Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Riders of Death Valley Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 16, 2020

Could the venerable Douglas Adams have been watching old serials when he decided to name characters in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Arthur Dent’s veritable Vergil in Adams' wending tale was named Ford Prefect, and this Betelgeusian space traveler also had a “semi half cousin” named Zaphod Beeblebrox, and it’s not that hard to imagine that both of these names welled up from Adams’ subconscious after he had viewed an outing directed by Ford Beebe, one of the two credited co-directors on Riders of Death Valley. Beebe had a long if perhaps not totally illustrious career, typically as writer and/or director of literally hundreds of lower budgeted outings, including a glut of serials. While many of Beebe’s efforts were westerns, as is the case with the serial currently under review, several of his other serials may indeed have captured the febrile imagination of Douglas Adams as he was preparing to write The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, since these were also (supposedly) intergalactic adventures. Included in this list are such relatively well remembered titles as Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Buck Rogers (Beebe evidently also had a hand in the re-edited version of Flash Gordon, which he did not originally direct, and which was retooled to become an ostensible feature film, and which was released under a variety of titles including Rocket Ship.) While Riders of Death Valley is decidedly earthbound, it’s a rather interesting serial, at least for some of its “meta” aspect if not necessarily for its pretty well worn plot, which includes the hunt for a priceless mine (was every western serial built around this premise?), and, later, efforts to make the mine produce before one of the villains is able to wrest control of it from the good guys.

As commentator Toby Roan gets into, Universal marketed Riders of Death Valley as a "million dollar serial", which, considering the results, might be more than a bit of public relations hyperbole, but there are some interesting performers assembled in this effort which may make it a bit more interesting than the typical serial. The hero is stalwart Jim Benton (Dick Foran), who leads a bunch of quasi-vigilantes known as the Riders of Death Valley, who are pitted against a similar aggregation of black hats called the Wolf Pack, which includes a whole coterie of villains, including Butch (Lon Chaney, Jr.), Wolf Reade (Charles Bickford), and the Wolf Pack's "supervisors", Joseph Kirby (James Blaine) and Rance Davis (Monte Blue). Universal western serial superstar Buck Jones is on hand as a good guy named Tombstone, and future Pancho from television's The Cisco Kid, Leo Carrillo, essays a similarly named character, providing some of the serial's comedy relief. Other supporting players include Noah Beery, Jr. as Smokey, and Glenn Strange as Tex. (One of the "meta" aspects that may interest some viewers is following up on all the interrelated classic Universal monster movies that several of these performers appeared in.)

As alluded to above, the serial is kind of split into two parts, each of which has provided the basic content for countless other serials. The first several episodes deal with the hunt for the Lost Aztec mine, which in fact is finally located. The plot then starts to hinge on efforts by Kirby and his cohort scheming to take it from Jim and his buddies, while they toil to hit pay dirt (so to speak) before Kirby's plan succeeds. The serial is resolutely silly throughout in terms of its denouements for each episode's cliffhanger (which in this case is a literal statement, as there seem to be a rather insane number of high ledges suddenly showing up for stagecoaches and other items to careen over), but a number of the action sequences are really well staged. There's a stampede in Episode 4, for example, that does seem to have some stock footage in it (as per the usual custom, this aspect shows up pretty regularly here), but which also clearly has newly staged material featuring the stars which includes a huge number of horses marauding past various characters.

It's also interesting to note that Buck Jones, so frequently the undeniable star of Universal westerns, is here consigned to more of a "corollary hero" role, and the serial is also interesting that the perceived love interest, Mary Morgan (Jean Brooks, here billed under her original name Jeanne Kelly, which she forsook once she married Richard Brooks and some guy named Gene Kelly showed up), doesn't really figure into the proceedings as consistently as females do in some of the other Universal western serials.

Riders of Death Valley Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Riders of Death Valley is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. Some relatively "small print" on the front cover of this release states "restored from a new 4K scan of the studio's 35mm fine grain", though the back cover has a disclaimer about Episode 6 which mentions a "negative" (see screenshot 19 for the verbiage that is on the back cover, which is also repeated in an on screen disclaimer before that episode begins). One way or the other, this presentation offers a generally solid transfer, though it does suffer from VCI's tendency not to let film grain get too out of hand. To cite just one example in this regard, the serial features a number of fun optical wipes that serve as segues, where you might reasonably expect grain to spike, and it never really does (see screenshot 16). There's therefore a filtered appearance here, even if traces of grain still roll through the frame. There is intermittent damage on display, as can be seen in some of the screenshots, and "as advertised", the opening of Episode 6 has some bad scratches and contrast issues that are nowhere near as prevalent in the bulk of this presentation across all of the other episodes. Detail levels are often quite appealing in close-ups. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, snippets of stock footage are inserted in virtually every episode, and video quality can noticeably decline in these moments. My score is 3.25.

Riders of Death Valley Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Riders of Death Valley features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track. There's some slight distortion in the theme music underlying the credits for all of the episodes (a theme Toby Roan mentions will be indelibly imprinted on your mind by the time the serial ends), and there are occasional signs of age related wear and tear scattered throughout the episodes, including pops and cracks and even occasional (and very short lived) dropouts. All of that said, there's really no problem with regard to dialogue, and a number of the effects, like galloping horses, gunfire and the occasional fist fight, sound typically boxy but are decently resonant. Optional English subtitles are available.

Riders of Death Valley Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Audio Commentary is by western aficionado Toby Roan and covers the first two chapters of the serial. This is one of very few VCI releases I personally recall that feature a commentary (this may in fact be the only one, but my memory may be failing me), and Roan does a good job of providing a wealth of biographical information about many of the performers. The commentary is accessible under the Setup Menu on Disc One of this two disc set.

Disc Two

• Photo Gallery (1080p; 5:12) features a wealth of archival images culled from the collection of Toby Roan.


• Riders of Death Valley Trailers (1080p; 4:31) do indeed market the piece as "the million dollar serial".


• The Oregon Trail Trailer (1080p; 3:36)


• Jungle Queen Trailer (1080p; 1:33)

Riders of Death Valley Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For an ostensible "million dollar serial", Riders of Death Valley is kind of curiously rote, though it does feature an interesting cast, and some of the action sequences are surprisingly well staged. Grain seems minimized in this presentation, and there is occasional age related wear and tear, something that also spills over into the audio presentation, but this is the rare VCI release with a commentary, and that supplement along with both the photo gallery and trailers for the serial might be appreciated by fans.