The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold 1958

It’s a nice but occasionally weird change of pace to swap back and forth between catching up on some of the newest superhero movies and going back to some of the earliest ones that I have yet to review here on this site. For my latest venture, I looked up the final of two Lone Ranger movies that were made with the stars of the TV series. This is now the fourth Lone Ranger movie that I’ve watched for this site and It’s pretty close to the worst along with the 1980’s movie. I went back and read my review for the first of these Lone Ranger movies and I have to say that this felt less respectful of its representation of indigenous people. But besides that, the movie took forever to really get going as the story really didn’t make any significant progress until the final half hour of the movie. And similar to the first movie, the best part was when the Lone Ranger went undercover, this time as a Southern gentleman bounty hunter. I watched the movie streaming on Plex, but it’s not something that I would easily recommend.

The basic premise of the movie is that there is a group of hooded bandits that are going around killing members of the local tribe, it’s slowly revealed that the men had all been gifted a silver medallion from the chief and that medallion was part of a plate that led to a lost city of gold. Though the movie starts off before there’s even any dialogue with the death of some random man who is then buried under a pile of rocks by the Lone Ranger and Tonto, then the theme song kicks in almost as if it were an episode of the TV show. As a last gasp of the show, there aren’t any elements that hint that this is the final adventure, nor is there any real exposition or introduction to the characters. The viewer is just expected to be familiar with them

The action in general feels very of its time with a lot of horse riding and shooting blanks followed by reactions whenever someone was supposed to have been shot and a spot of blood wherever they might have been hit, either that or they are just dead with no visible injuries. Some of the best moments actually came from the horses as Silver had a few moments where he pointed out the position of a baby near the beginning who had suddenly become an orphan, and Tonto’s horse Scout had a fun moment where the two of them were sleeping next to each other at their camp and Scout kept pulling the blanket away from Tonto for himself. The baby as a subplot was a rather odd choice as they were placed under the care of the nearby town’s Padre and his Native… assistant? It’s later revealed that she is secretly dating the local doctor who is clearly wearing the same brownface, or technically redface makeup that all of the other native characters are wearing, and yet because he has a short haircut, that’s apparently enough to pass as White. There’s also the element of the sheriff slash bar owner who is extremely racist against Natives and sics the local bullies on Tonto near the beginning of the movie. And it’s little surprise to find out that those local bullies are also the hooded bandits.

Similar to the first movie, there’s an element of a mystery to the plot and it’s met with varying degrees of success. The plot is revealed to the audience relatively early on about the medallions, and they’re being sought after by the local well-to-do widow Francis who also happens to be dating the leader of the hooded bandits. But it takes quite a while before the Lone Ranger finds out about the plot through his disguise as a Southern gentleman bounty hunter looking to collect the reward money that also happens to have been offered by Francis. She also directs the bandits to rob, but not kill, her own payroll stagecoach to throw people off of her scent. But the Southern Gentleman angle was the most interesting part of the movie, especially as he was able to draw out the details of the plot while she tries to recruit him to be her new partner.

The biggest problem with this movie is that the pace is way too slow. There are five pieces of this medallion and two of them have been found by the time the opening credits have finished, and yet the next two take about an hour to collect. Plus there’s the whole side plot with the racist sheriff slash bartender, the baby who apparently needs to be adopted and is being taken care of by this Native woman who is secretly dating the doctor who is secretly the grandson of the Chief and has the final medallion. Something that he seems to randomly reveal to the entire town right when the last piece was in question. Tonto also spends most of the time being pointless. He gets beat up at the beginning by the racist bar patrons at the behest of the sheriff, and later on he gets shot, seemingly in the head, yet is able to shake it off to try and get a warning to both the Lone Ranger and the doctor. But while trying to lead the bandits away from the doctor, he crashes the wagon before he even leaves the village’s limits. And yet, by the end everything turns out ok with the baby going to the doctor and the Native woman, and the Lone Ranger gets the silver plate and uses it to lead the Padre, the doctor, and his girlfriend to the lost city of gold which will allow him to set up a Mission in town. And they all lived happily ever after. There were a few moments of good action during the climax along with some cliched moments like when a bandit has the drop on the Lone Ranger from up on a rooftop yet the Lone Ranger uses his Spidey senses and turns around to shoot first. But mainly it just took forever to get anywhere. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.