The Kid's Last Ride (1941) User Reviews

Lured Into the outlaw life

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 11 June 2012]

The Breeden Brothers, outlaws by trade are hanging around a certain territory doing their dastardly worse but with a special mission in mind. Brother and sister Edwin Brian and Luana Walters are the son and daughter of a judge who hung another brother. The Breedens, Al Bridge and Glenn Strange want some vengeance and what better way than to lure young Brian into the outlaw life.

But these two don't reckon the presence of the Range Busters. Monogram's trio of cowboy heroes are sent for to straighten out the outlaw situation and don't make a good appearance when Bridge, Strange and their gang steal their horses. They get off on the wrong foot, but no keeping a Range Buster down.

The usual we can expect is here with Ray Corrigan and Dusty King trying to court Walters and Max Terhune and Elmer with Elmer getting the film's best lines. It's a downer of an ending, but still in the spirit of the matinée kids, in fact there's a moral lesson in it for them.

Matinée kids of all ages should still like this one.

"Stand back everybody, this is gonna be a fair fight".

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 30 May 2011]

Well no, it's not Billy the Kid, but one named Jimmy Rowell (Edwin Brian), who gets mixed up with a pair of outlaw brothers seeking revenge for a third brother's hanging that sets up the story. Ike (Glenn Strange) and Jim (Al Bridge) Breeden take Jimmy into their confidence by piling him up with gambling debts, then attempt to set him up for the robbery of a local rancher so that he gets caught, convicted and hung as a way to avenge their brother's loss. It was Jimmy's father, a circuit judge who sentenced Bud Breeden to hang, so there's that additional motivation for the bad guys to get their revenge.

But wait, not so fast - here comes the Range Busters! They show up in Canyon City at the behest of the town looking to hire some peace officers. Trouble is, they had to make their way there on foot, as their horses were stolen by the outlaw bunch while on the trail. Not a great way to make their introduction, but it does provide a nifty way for Crash Corrigan's horse to identify Bart Gill (Glenn Strange's alter-ego in the picture) as one of the bad guys. From there, it's only a matter of time before Crash, Dusty King, and Max Terhune set things right by nailing the outlaws.

The one thing I noticed with this Range Busters flick is that Max 'Alibi' Terhune didn't have much to do except hang around and keep an eye on one outlaw or another after they were put in custody. Consequently, his wooden dummy pal Elmer didn't get much screen time either, although Elmer did manage to sing a few lines of 'It's All Part of the Game' early on. If you keep an eye on Max, his lips don't move at all while doing the ventriloquist gimmick, in fact they're completely pressed shut. How'd he do that?

Whenever there's a pretty lady around, you can count on Crash and Dusty trying to outmaneuver each other for her attention. That's the case here, as school teacher Sally Rowell (Luana Walters) invites the boys over to dinner after the skunk incident (you'll have to watch the picture) and Dusty figures out a way to drop in after Crash and Alibi have dinner first. Crash feigns his indignation, but ultimately, this romance goes nowhere. The Range Busters consider themselves mavericks, never staying in one place long enough to settle down. When this adventure was over, they did a noble thing by donating their wages to the town to set up a local community center in memory of Jimmy Rowell. Jimmy didn't make it to the closing credits, as he was gunned down by Breeden's bunch in the final chase scene.

Why wasn't that lady in jail by the end of the film??

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 28 January 2021]

The Range Busters (the usual trio of Ray Corrigan, Dusty King, Max Terhune....and his creepy ventriloquist dummy, Elmer) are contacted to become lawmen in a western town. But the man appointed by the committee to contact them paints an ugly picture of the place....hoping they'll stay away. When that doesn't work and the trio head there, the scum-bag arranges for their horses to be stolen! And, once they are there, things don't see all that friendly. On top of that, the 'nice' lady Crash and Dusty are smitten with has a secret...her brother is working for the local bandits. And, when the Range Busters realize it, she pulls a gun on them to prevent them from arresting him! What's next? Well, oddly enough, it's NOT arresting the woman for drawing a gun on them!

Is this a good B-western? Well, it's about average for the genre....and is pretty typical of the Range Busters. Fortunately, Elmer isn't in the movie very much....but the plot isn't exactly brilliant nor inspired. Worth watching if you love the genre...otherwise, just a time-passer at best.

On thing you can say, this film had action at every turn.

[kfo9494 · 5/10 · 12 September 2018]

As with a number of western films put out in this time period, it was made for the Saturday Matinee to entertain the young people. Since there was no television at the time, movie houses wanted something new each week to get the kids in the theater and turn some kind of profit. These type of films would be shown in a double or triple feature so they needed to be made quickly and as cheaply as possible. Thus, providing the movie house with revenue.

Even though this film is dated, it actually had a interesting plot that is missing from so many of the 'poverty row' western movies. When the Ranger Busters ride into town, they are recruited as lawmen. In the town they have some villains trying to get a teenager in trouble with the law all because of a hanging that happen some time back. These villains, led by Glen Strange, trying to get the young man, Jimmy, to live their life of lawlessness but are actually setting Jimmy up for a fall. And not just any fall, but one that revenge will be returned for the hanging of one of the villain's buddies.

Everything in the film looked to be going well- but when the songs were introduced, the viewer was made aware that this film was made for teenagers. It was bad enough that one of the Busters, Alibi (Max Terhune) has a puppet named Elmer riding around with him. Then when a song breaks out, Elmer has some of the lines in the song. Egad!

For a 'B' western movie this was not too bad. It did have the lovely Luana Walters in the picture that is always a treat for any viewer. But one cannot get past the fact that, poor lighting, questionable sound and previously recorded song tracks - made this movie seem poorly made. But I am sure that in early 1941, before the outbreak of war, this film entertained many a young man sitting in a dark theater on Saturday afternoon.

Ruthless Outlaws

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 17 September 2021]

"The Kid's Last Ride" was originally released back in 1941.

Anyway - As the story goes - The Range Busters find themselves in the middle of a range war between rival ranchers. The feud ends up involving one of the rancher's sons, who is being turned to a life of crime and is risking his relationship with the other rancher's daughter.