Oregon Trail Scouts (1947)
Red Ryder battles an unscrupulous fur thief named Hunter for the right to trap beaver and otter on the land of Chief Running Fox.
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Best movie of this year hands down!
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
The film starts takes place before the series began telling the story of how Red met and became guardian of Little Beaver. Years back, Red led a wagon train of fur trappers into an Indian reservation, where an Indian agent, Bliss, is getting permission from Chief Running Fox to have the trappers hunt on the reservation. Hunter, a trapper himself, as well as outlaw, is also trying to get to hunt on Running Fox' land, and has an ace in the hole. It seems years ago he kidnapped Running Fox' grandson as a baby, and planned to exchange the future chief for the land. The baby, now grown as Little Beaver (who lives on the reservation unknown that he is the future chief) is the target of Hunter, who now needs to get the child to have something to hold against Running Fox. Red, Bear Trap, and the Duchess (who has just arrived west to bring Red back to Pennsylvania, to get him away from the untamed west) to stop Hunter and his gang from creating a war between the wagon train and Indians. Nice entry in the Ryder series, but far from the best, much of it because the lack of a big action sequence, settling for smaller fights. The Little Beaver origin story is good, also including the Duchess coming out west (as usual the interaction between Lynn and Wentworth is priceless). Some nice camera-work by Springsteen heightens the film. Rating, based on B westerns, 7.