Daredevils of the West

Daredevils of the West (1943) is a Republic Movie serial. Daredevils of the West is a lightning-fast-paced Western cliffhanger serial released by Republic Pictures in 1943 starring Allan Lane and Kay Aldridge. The plot involves a gang of land-grabbers who try to prevent safe passage of the Foster Stage Company through frontier territory, however, the story of the serial is merely a framework for the setup of numerous elaborate stunt action sequences, cliff-hanging perils and fiery deathtraps which the hero and heroine must fight to survive. As was the case with other Republic serials released during wartime such as King of the Mounties and The Masked Marvel, a rapid, even frantic pace is evident throughout, which has made the serial a favorite among fans. Both Native American actors who played the Lone Ranger's companion Tonto, Chief Thunder Cloud (of the 1930s Lone Ranger movie serials) and Jay Silverheels (of 1950s Lone Ranger television program) appear in the sequence in which Kay Aldridge and Eddie Acuff are held hostage by Indians. The serial was long considered to be a partially lost film; for years, copies of only chapters 2, 4, 5, and 12 circulated on 16mm among film collectors. The entire serial, however, was never fully "lost," it was simply never re-released to theaters, or released on video because 5 reels of sound from the archival material apparently went missing not long after the serial's original exhibition. The absence of these reels may be the reason why Republic Pictures had no objection to subsequently selling off an incomplete print of the serial to Cowboy actor William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd for use as stock footage. All 12 chapters were screened, for the first time in 65 years, in May 2008 by the Serial Squadron at SerialFest 2008 in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The film was subsequently shown at the Lone Pine film festival in October 2009 and at the Memphis film festival in June 2010. Daredevils of the West, with restored audio and dubbed missing-dialogue sequences, was released on DVD by the Serial Squadron, an organization which restores classic film serials, in February 2011.