Bandit Queen

The Bandit Queen is a 1950 American Western film directed by William Berke. The movie featured Barbara Britton and Phillip Reed as the leaders of a Robin Hood type band. The Bandit Queen was produced by Lippert Pictures Inc. and shot in the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park as well as the San Fernando Valley. Set near Madera, California during the California Gold Rush, The Bandit Queen is a 70 minute black-and-white movie that was a serial film depiction of Joaquin Murrieta's life. Martha Vickers was initially slated to "play a two-gun gal of the West in her come-back picture" in this movie. This release marked the final "Lippert Studios" film in 1950 with Britton starring in the title role as a Spanish American aristocratic daughter who avenged her parents' deaths in recovering stolen wealth through the use of a bullwhip. The Baltimore Afro-American described The Bandit Queen as, "a pistol-packin mama story".