Outlaws of Boulder Pass

As this movie begins, George Houston is the Lone Rider, roaming along the road. To emphasize this, he sings a song with the repeated refrain "Oh! Let me keep roaming alone!" Unfortunately, he is riding with Al St. John, who seems smug about it under his beard. Fortunately, George quickly finds a rancher who needs to be helped, and they decide that the best way to do it is to pretend that Al is dead and buried. All too soon, Marjorie Manners turns up as someone's daughter telling men they can't collect toll on her father's land.

It's a PRC western, directed for speed and director Sam Newfield didn't get the big budgets like Edward Ulmer. I wonder what they rented it for when it played the Saturday matinees.

Boulder Pass is a checkpoint where unfair tolls are charged to ranchers driving their cattle. On one side of it is Ranch Bar BX where Tess lives with Sidney Clayton who claims to be her father. On the other side is the fake grave of her brother Smoky Hammer. Tom and Fuzzy had intervened in time to save Smoky after he had been shot. They decide to spread the word that Smoky is dead to save him from getting into further trouble. They need to find who had murdered Smoky's father 15 years earlier. This is the 11th western in the Lone Rider series and the last one to star George Houston before Robert Livingston took over the role of Tom Cameron. I reckon Al St. John must have been the busiest actor at PRC. He's Fuzzy in this series as well as Fuzzy in the long-running Billy the Kid/Bill Carson series. I like the comic macabre theme in this entry where Smoky's ghost is supposed to be haunting his killers.

"Outlaws of Boulder Pass" hails from 1942 and was by definition saddled with the low budget provisions of the PRC studios. It was also one of the last pictures made by the strong and handsome actor George Houston. Many scenes were staged outside and they used several locales and sets often (such as the toll booth where cattle ranchers were charged for moving stock through a pass). Although Houston plays the role of the "Lone Rider" here, he is really part of a three man team (also actors Dennis Moore and Al "Fuzzy" St. John) who work together to bring the bad guys to justice.

Be aware of some illogical if not ridiculous story development moments as the actors approach their jobs in an obviously relaxed way. The grave body-checking scene is very curious, as Dennis Moore bravely and messily tempts the repeated thrustings of a stabbing shovel as he assists in the pursuit of identifying the film's crime-committing culprits. The funnest part of watching this film is to see venerable mean guy Charles King playing up the ineptitude of his character in charming and comedic fashion. King very likely will bring more smiles and chuckles to the viewer than the comic relief of Fuzzy St. John.

There is, for most film fans, little in this film that would warrant higher than average marks, except for the overall "enjoyment quotient," which is high. Why it all comes together for a fun little hour may never be determined, but B-western fans, for whatever reason, will probably enjoy this show. GIB~

The end of PRC's Lone Rider series was Outlaws Of Border Pass where George Houston and Al St.John go to the aid of ranchers being charged exhorbitant tolls to drive cattle across a certain ranch.

A lot of this doesn't make much sense including a part where someone pretends to be a girl's father . Like she could be fooled that way. Behind all this dirty businessm is veteran western heavy I. Stanford Jolley.

Strangest of all why is someone known as The Lone Rider given a sidekick? Not like he's a masked man where 'lone' means last survivor.