Cyclone Fury

During the last two years of Columbia's lengthy run of Durango Kid westerns, the production team was forced to make budget cuts. This resulted in fewer supporting players and, especially, shooting less new material and reusing older footage to bring each film up to the 54-minute mark. Sometimes this method was very obvious, with the new footage setting up flashbacks that were often confusing or distracting. CYCLONE FURY avoids the flashbacks and offers an hour of pleasing western action and music.

The big surprise is that only about half of the footage was photographed for this picture, and the other half is borrowed from older Durangos. The first reel is taken from PRAIRIE RAIDERS, the musical numbers are taken from GALLOPING THUNDER, the Smiley Burnette horseback chase is from CHALLENGE OF THE RANGE; and the smoke-signal and Indian-tribe scenes are from LARAMIE. The film editor added even more stock shots of wild-horse roundups. Script writer Barry Shipman, an old hand at interpolating old clips into new stories, ties it all together so cleverly that the seams are hidden fairly well, and the new footage keeps the story moving forward instead of flashing back. To give you an idea of how careful the new staging is, some of the old footage had the actors outdoors exhaling icy breath -- and the new footage with villain Clayton Moore matches it!

Columbia's number-one cowboy star, the durable Charles Starrett, is still an impressive figure after 16 years of westerns. He handles his dual role of stalwart cowboy and masked crusader with aplomb, and he throws the best punch in the movies. Smiley Burnette's comedy relief is a matter of taste, but in CYCLONE FURY he isn't quite as imbecilic as usual, and he actually sings one of his songs straight, in a persuasive tenor. Clayton Moore as Durango's main opposition is par for this series, and fans who know Moore only as the Lone Ranger might be surprised at how well he carries off a bad-guy role.

CYCLONE FURY is a masterpiece of film editing, out of necessity rather than creativity, and is a fine exhibit of the waning days of B-western production.