Range Warfare

Federal Marshal Reb Russell goes by the nickname of The Whistler and his prowess with guns is legendary. But when he has to shoot down an old friend who thought Russell might have been going after him because he broke jail it's the start of his involvement in some incipient Range Warfare.

Russell was one of a dozen or more B picture cowboy heroes who worked for many fly by night independent studios which came and went faster than the careers of some of the cowboy heroes they gave the movie going public in those Depression Days. Russell looked good sitting a horse, but did not handle dialog all that well.

Nevertheless the problem with Range Warfare as a film isn't really Russell. The budgetary constraints of these poverty row studios did not allow for too much in the way of a complex plot. These films were after all for the Saturday matinée crowd of juveniles. But Range Warfare tries to cram too much plot into a 53 minute running time and it doesn't quite succeed. The man behind the rustling leading to the Range Warfare is someone we don't even get introduced to as a character until the last quarter of the film.

A few familiar faces from B westerns you'll note in the cast. Range Warfare was a film a bit too ambitious for its budget.