Texas Tornado (1932)

the audience applauded

Excellent but underrated film

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Lane Chandler (Tex Robbins), Doris Hill (Ruth O'Byrne), Ben Corbett (Shorty Walker), J. Frank Glendon (Three Star Henley), Edward Hearn (Fanner Durkin), Yakima Canutt (Jackson), Bart Carre (Slim, the cook), Wes Warner (Pete), Fred Burns (sheriff), Slim Whitaker (henchman), Mike Brand (Wolf Cassidy), Chuck Baldra, Jack Kirk, Glenn Strange, Archie Ricks, Bob Roper, Frank Ellis (rustlers), Ray Henderson (barfly), Oscar Gahan (deputy), Ralph Bucko (guard at rustler's camp).Director: OLIVER DRAKE. Screenplay: Oliver Drake. Photography: James Diamond. Film editor: S. Roy Luby. Producer: Willis Kent.Not copyrighted by Willis Kent Productions. No recorded New York opening. Released through independent state's rights exchanges: September – December 1932. 53 minutes. Television title: RANCH DYNAMITE.SYNOPSIS: Texas ranger assumes the identity of a Chicago gangster who has fled out west to join the local bad boys.COMMENT: You don't catch Willis Kent wasting his money on copyright fees. If anybody wanted a copy of one of his pictures, Willis would gladly sell a copy himself! Although not half as interesting as its stablemate, "Wyoming Whirlwind", this entry has a fair amount of curiosity value and will go down well with Lane Chandler's fans, despite dull direction, routine scripting and limited production values.

There are very few westerns that one can watch without getting the feeling that it has all been seen before(the possible exception might be "Dead Man", and the pigs following the wagons out of South Texas in "Lonesome Dove") but this one mostly had been seen before if one saw the Willis Kent production of "Wyoming Whirlwind." The plot lines and character roles differ greatly, but four segments from "Wyoming Whirwind" reappear in "Texas Tornado." The first is a chase scene;the second is a rustling scene with Yamima Canutt and Bob Roper;the third is a water-hole scene with Lane Chandler, Canutt and Slim Whitaker , and the finale is a rustler's cave shootout.Since only one or two of the six Willis Kent-produced films starring Lane Chandler are still around on video with all of the original titles and credit frames intact,the question was once asked of Oliver Drake, who was involved on all six films as either the writer or director or both, if perhaps the people who originally made 16mm prints of these six films for the television markets of the 1950's hadn't possibly dropped a few reel cans and mixed them up.Drake's first response was one of amazement that the films had ever been sold to television stations("somebody paid money for those...twice?), and then he said if the question is about many scenes from one of the films showing up in some of the other films, the answer is that they did indeed do so, and did so on purpose because old man Kent didn't want to waste time or spend any money on shooting new footage when they already had footage shot for a previous film, and most of the same male actors were involved in all of the films anyway.According to Drake,Kent said "we already got stuff with Chandler and Yak fighting, use it again." Drake protested that they were playing different characters and were wearing different costumes."So, they can't change clothes" between the first and last reels?" was the response.Or middle reels as it turned out.Drake went on to add that film editor Roy Luby should have gotten a director's credit on the last three since he was the one who had to patch in the old footage with the new.Stuntman/actor Yakima Canutt, on the same interview and involved in all six films, said it was okay with him , as star Lane Chandler was too tall, bumbly and clumsy for a good fight scene and once around with Chandler was enough for him anyway.