Hello Posse,
Today, I want to introduce you to another Republic serial movie that comes from the 1940s. As you know my book serial is based on this movie concept so you can well imagine I love these movie shorts.Today's pick is special. You might actually be familiar with this serial in a way and not even realize it.
This western short serial is Adventures of Red Ryder. It is based on the Red Ryder comicstrip by Fred Harman. It was the first of two 12 episode comicstrip based serials that Republic produced in 1940. The second was King of the Royal Mounted.
This serial was given a budget of $144,852 (which I found to be a very odd number to come up with) and was filmed between March 27th and April 25th, 1940 , that is 29 days to film 12 episodes each running about 25 minutes long. In the end, filming ran over budget to the tune of $1.109. Now that may not sound like much but keep in mind this was 1940. In today's terms, that would equal $19,901.24. While still not a huge sum by movie standards it was s
significant for that time period.
Now, if this serial sounds familiar to you but you just can't figure out why, let me ask you this, have you ever seen the holiday movie A Christmas Story? In case you are one of the few who haven't, in this movie we follow little Ralphie as he tries to find someone who will agree to buy him an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle for Christmas. At every turn his request is rejected as he is told, "You'll shoot your eye out."
Just like in the Christmas movie, Red Ryder spawned many popular merchandise items including a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun. This Friday, I will share more with you about the Red Ryder comic strip in the Friday Funnies blog.
Happy trails!
Stephen
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