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Reviews
The Cowboy and the Indians (1949)
Clayton Moore and Jay Siverheels
One of the interesting things about the picture is that Jay Silverheels plays a WW2 vet (Lakohna) living on the reservation and Clayton Moore is one of the thugs who is sent by the local thief/merchant to rob the Navahos. He steals and kills some sheep, and then mugs a chief for a squash blossom necklace. He and Autry do most of the fighting in the film.
The kicker is, the movie, and the premier episode of The Lone Ranger, both arrived on Sept 15, 1949.
An interesting moment comes when Autry sees Lakohna's medal and asks, "Guadacanal?" to which Silverheels replies, "Iwo Jima."
Q Planes (1939)
bonded
No wonder that this picture anticipates Bond by 25 years, it was co written by Jack Whittingham, who was one of the principle architects of the movie version of James Bond.
Whittingham shares a credit on the film, and the novel, Thunderball, which was originally intended to be the first James Bond picture.
More than a few of the classic Bond tropes are contained in the story--it actually points to Dr No (bringing down planes electronically) and to so many of the Bond stories that have huge battles at the end, with the hero freeing, and/or working alongside troops of one kind or another.
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (1986)
action figures--galaxy rangers
Actually there was a series of toys and action figures made for the series, but they never hit the US domestic market. I bought several in Paris sometime after the show had ended here--a Goose figure, a ray gun and a water pistol.
And while in Paris I was surprised to see, in a dept store window, a wall full of televisions, all showing a Rangers cartoon.
What the show had going for it were the scripts by SF writers like Mick Farren and series editor Christopher Rowley (both have websites), and Tom De Haven, who wrote the recent novel "It's Superman."
Most fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly-Serenity have no idea there was a cartoon twenty years ago that had much in common with the recent live action series