The Legend of the Lone Ranger

The Legend of the Lone Ranger
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William A. Fraker
Produced by	Walter Coblenz
Written by	Gerald B. Derloshon, Ivan Goff, Michael Kane, Ben Roberts, William Roberts, George W. Trendle
Starring	Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse, Christopher Lloyd, Matt Clark, Juanin Clay, Jason Robards, John Bennett Perry
Music by	John Barry
Cinematography	László Kovács
Editing by	Thomas Stanford
Release date(s)	May 22, 1981
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$18,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$12,617,845 (USA)

The Legend of the Lone Ranger is a 1981 British-American western film directed by William A. Fraker and starring Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse and Christopher Lloyd.

It is based on the story of The Lone Ranger, a Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Its producers outraged fans by not allowing actor Clayton Moore to wear the character's mask when making public appearances, and created a further bad buzz when the dialogue of leading man Klinton Spilsbury was dubbed by another actor. The film was a huge box-office failure.

Plot

The outlaw Butch Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) ambushes a party of Texas Rangers, killing all except John Reid (Klinton Spilsbury) who is rescued by his old childhood Comanche friend, Tonto (Michael Horse). When he recovers from his wounds, he dedicates his life to fighting the crime that Cavendish represents. To this end, John becomes the great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger. With the help of Tonto, the pair go to rescue President Grant (Jason Robards) when Cavendish takes him hostage.

Cast

• Klinton Spilsbury as The Lone Ranger
• Michael Horse as Tonto
• Christopher Lloyd as Butch Cavendish
• Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant
• John Bennett Perry as Ranger Captain Dan Reid
• John Hart as Lucas Striker
• Richard Farnsworth as Wild Bill Hickok
• Lincoln Tate as George A. Custer
• Ted Flicker as Buffalo Bill Cody

Production

Many attempts had been made to create a Lone Ranger movie that would appeal to a modern audience, including making Tonto an equal partner, and mentor to the Lone Ranger. In the movie Tonto teaches the hero how to shoot, and is also (mainly) responsible for training Silver. (Moreover, Tonto speaks whole sentences, while in the radio and TV series he had quite a limited vocabulary.) Also, in another change to established canon, Reid is (at first) not an actual Texas Ranger but a civilian observer (and younger brother of the Rangers' captain) who survives Cavendish's massacre.

This film was shot in New Mexico, Utah, and California. Two of the movie's four screenwriters, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, previously created the hit TV series Charlie's Angels; they also worked together on another hit series, Mannix.

The movie's ballad-narration, The Man In The Mask, was composed by Dean Pitchford of Footloose and Sing fame.

Klinton Spilsbury's dialogue was overdubbed for the entire movie by actor James Keach.

Clayton Moore Lawsuit

In 1978 Jack Wrather and Bonita Granville gained the legal rights to the Lone Ranger character and were planning a feature film with a younger actor. In 1979, Wrather obtained an injunction to stop Clayton Moore from appearing as the character at county fairs, much to fans' displeasure. Wrather anticipated making a new film version of the story, and did not want the value of the character being undercut by Moore's appearances. Also, Wrather did not want to encourage the belief that the 65-year-old Moore would be playing the role in the new picture. This move proved to be a public relations disaster. Moore responded by changing his costume slightly and replacing the mask with similar-looking wraparound sunglasses, and by counter-suing Wrather. He eventually won the suit, and was able to resume his appearances in costume, which he continued to do until shortly before his death in 1999.

Allusions

These events were later satirized in the episode "Who Was That Mashed Man" of the TV sitcom Night Court, where a case comes through the courtroom involving: an elderly man who played the "Red Ranger," a famous cowboy of yesteryear that was popular with children; and the producers of a movie that is a modernized remake of the character...turning him into a swearing, womanizing modern action hero. Both parties are clashing over the elderly man appearing in public as his old persona.

In the short-lived series Once a Hero, Adam West appeared in the fourth episode "Things Get Ugly" as an actor unable to escape the stereotyping of having played a comicbook hero on television (Captain Justice) and earns a living by making public appearances as that character. In this episode a new movie version of the character is coming out, and the studio files a lawsuit against Adam West's character to prevent him making any further appearances, echoing Moore's situation exactly.

Additionally humorist Russell Baker satirized the producers' legal action against Clayton Moore in his newspaper column. The piece, titled "Bye Bye Silver Bullets," had the Lone Ranger in a swank attorney's office being forced to hand over Silver, his mask and his silver bullets.

Reception

The film was released to massive publicity in 1981 and did poorly. Box office receipts were far short of the amount needed to recoup the costs of the film, and critical reviews were almost unanimously negative. Despite the presence of good actors in supporting roles, including Christopher Lloyd as the villain, cashiered former Union Army Major Bartholomew "Butch" Cavendish, and Jason Robards as President Ulysses S. Grant, the film vanished from theaters rapidly. The actor who appeared as the Ranger, Klinton Spilsbury, had not appeared in any other films as of 2011, while the actor portraying Tonto, Michael Horse, had done somewhat better, appearing in many minor films and as a regular on the Canadian television series North of 60 as well as the American series Twin Peaks.

Awards and nominations

• Golden Raspberry Awards

Won: Worst Actor (Klinton Spilsbury)

Won: Worst New Star (Klinton Spilsbury)

Won: Worst Musical Score

Nominated: Worst Picture

Nominated: Worst "Original" Song (The Man in the Mask)

Merchandise

A novelization of the movie was released in 1981, written by Gary McCarthy and published by Ballantine Books (ISBN 0345294386).

A line of action figures created by the toy company Gabriel in 1982 which included Buffalo Bill Cody, Butch Cavendish, George Custer, The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Also released by Gabriel were the horses Silver (The Lone Ranger's Horse), Scout (Tonto's Horse) and Smoke (Butch's Horse).

External links

• The Legend of the Lone Ranger at the Internet Movie Database
• The Legend of the Lone Ranger at AllRovi
• The Legend of the Lone Ranger at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Legend of the Lone Ranger at Box Office Mojo
• The Legend of the Lone Ranger Action Figures