Riders of Death Valley
A MILLION-DOLLAR SUPER SERIAL! With a thousand teeming thrills in 15 exciting chapters!
283 mins
The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.
Charles Thomas
Rimrock [Ch. 4]
James Guilfoyle
Judge Knox [Chs. 2, 13-14]
Art Dillard
Miner
Chick Hannan
Miner
Jerome Harte
Richards
Al Haskell
Barfly
Jimmie Lucas
Saloon Waiter
Frank McCarroll
Lyncher
Leo J. McMahon
Barfly
Jay Michael
Cashier
Art Miles
Green
William Pagan
Marshal
Tex Palmer
Wagon Driver
Ed Payson
Buck Hansen
Gil Perkins
Fighter
Alonzo Price
Mr. Wilson
Ruth Rickaby
Kate
Dick Rush
Saloon Waiter
Smoke
Jim's Horse
Ken Nolan
Cashier
Leroy Johnson
Stunts
Ralph M. DeLacy
Art Direction
Jack Casey
Stunts
Ken Terrell
Stunts
George H. Plympton
Screenplay
Jack O'Donnell
Screenplay
Gil Perkins
Stunts
Charles Previn
Music Director
Oliver Drake
Story
Cleo E. Baker
Visual Effects
Leo J. McMahon
Stunts
Basil Dickey
Screenplay
Louis Sackin
Editor
Alvin Todd
Editor
Saul A. Goodkind
Supervising Film Editor
Sherman L. Lowe
Screenplay
Joseph Gluck
Editor
John P. Fulton
Visual Effects
Frank McCarroll
Stunts
Henry MacRae
Associate Producer
William A. Sickner
Director of Photography
Karl Hajos
Original Music Composer
W. Franke Harling
Original Music Composer
Ralph Freed
Original Music Composer
Heinz Roemheld
Original Music Composer
Charles Previn
Original Music Composer
Jerome Ash
Director of Photography
Art Dillard
Stunts