The Vigilantes Are Coming

Infobox Film
name = The Vigilantes Are Coming


director =Ray Taylor
Mack V. Wright
producer =Nat Levine
writer =Maurice Geraghty
Winston Miller
John Rathmell
Leslie Swabacker
starring =Robert Livingston
Kay Hughes
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Raymond Hatton
Fred Kohler
Robert Warwick
William Farnum
Bob Kortman
music = Arthur Kay
cinematography =Edgar Lyons
William Nobles
editing = Dick Fantl
Helene Turner
distributor =Republic Pictures
released =22 August 1936
runtime =12 chapters (229 min)
country = USA
language = English
budget = $82,616 (Negative cost: $87,655)
awards =
amg_id = 1:52764
imdb_id =0028466

"The Vigilantes Are Coming" (1936) is a Republic Movie serial. It was the third of the sixty six serials made by Republic Pictures (and the third released in 1936).

This serial was filmed between 28 May and 17 June 1936 under the working title of "The Vigilantes". It was released two months later, on 22 August 1936, under the final title. In the early 1950s the serial was re-edited into six 26½ minute episodes for television.

Plot

Following the discovery of gold in Mexican California in 1844, Russian Cossacks led by "Count Ivan Raspinoff", in collusion with "General Jason Burr", attempt to invade California and turn it into a Russian Colony with Burr as its dictator. In doing so they round up slaves to work the mines and General Burr has "Don Loring's" brother and father murdered to acquire their ore-rich land.

When Don returns, having been away at the time with "Salvation", "Whipsaw" and "Captain John Fremont", he assumes the masked identity of The Eagle to stop them and get his revenge.

He is aided by a group of vigilantes assembled from the Californian ranchers, fighting both General Burr's henchmen and Raspinoff's Cossacks, while awaiting the arrival of Captain Fremont's American troops before the colony becomes official.

Production

Although a little more than $5,000 over budget, this was the cheapest serial Republic ever made. (The second cheapest was "The Fighting Devil Dogs" (1938) at $92,569 while third was the preceding "Undersea Kingdom" at $99,222.)

This was William Witney's first time working on a serial, although not as director (that would be The Painted Stallion in 1937). In "The Vigilantes Are Coming" he worked as a second unit director and as an extra (a Cossack).

It was the ony serial Republic produced in this year, 1936 (the first year of serial production for Republic), where the lead character did not share the name of the lead actor (although "Crash" Corrigan in the previous Republic serial, "Undersea Kingdom", had his stagename created specifically for that serial).

Cast

*Robert Livingston as Don Loring, Mild mannered church organist/Masked vigilante "The Eagle"
*Kay Hughes as Doris Colton, John Colton's daughter
*Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as "Salvation", leader of the vigilantes
*Raymond Hatton as "Whipsaw", another Californian vigilante
*Fred Kohler as General Jason Burr, conspirator with Count Raspinoff aiming to become supreme dictator of Russian California
*Robert Warwick as Count Ivan Raspinoff, emissary of the Russian Tsar aiming to conquer Mexican California and claim its gold
*William Farnum as Father Jose, the local priest

upporting Cast

*Bob Kortman as Boris Petroff"', a Cossack
*John Merton as Rance Talbot"', one of General Burr's henchman
*Lloyd Ingraham as John Colton"', Mining engineer held by General Burr
*William Desmond as "Anderson", Rancher/Vigilante
*Yakima Canutt as "Barsam", one of General Burr's henchman
*Tracy Layne as Clem Peters, Rancher/Vigilante
*Bud Pope as "Ivan", a Cossack
*Steve Clemente as "Pedro", one of General Burr's henchman
*Bud Osborne as "Harris", one of General Burr's henchman
*Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Captain John Charles Fremont, US Army Captain

Chapter titles

#The Eagle Strikes "(31 min 24s)"
#Birth of the Vigilantes "(20 min 51s)"
#Condemned by Cossacks "(18 min 45s)"
#Unholy Gold "(16 min 50s)"
#Treachery Unmasked "(19 min 4s)"
#A Tyrant's Trickery "(17 min 54s)"
#Wings of Doom "(17 min 23s)"
#A Treaty with Treason "(17 min 18s)"
#Arrow's Flight "(17 min 59s)"
#Prison of Flame "(18 min 26s)"
#A Race With Death "(15 min 37s)"
#Fremont Takes Charge "(17 min 45s)"

Cliffhangers

#The Eagle is shot and falls from a church bell tower.
#The Eagle is locked inside the Powder Magazine when it explodes.
#The Eagle is caught by a firing squad meant for Salvation.
#The Eagle is caught under a hydraulic ore crusher.
#The Eagle falls over a cliff under a hail of bullets.
#The Eagle is knocked unconscious on a cart carrying powder when it explodes.
#The Eagle trips and falls beneath the blades of four Cossacks.
#A stagecoach carrying The Eagle and Count Raspinoff goes over a cliff.
#The Eagle is shot off his horse and falls under the hooves of his pursuers.
#The Eagle is locked in a burning building.
#The Eagle is caught in several explosions and the resultant landslide.

tunts

*Yakima Canutt as Don Loring (doubling Robert Livingston)
*Tommy Coats
*Ken Cooper
*Sam Garrett (roping double)
*Ted Mapes
*Wally West

References

*"Valley of the Cliffhangers Supplement"; Mathis, Jack, 1995, ISBN 0-9632878-1-8
*

External links

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###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Republic Serial
before=Undersea Kingdom (1936)
years=The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936)
after=Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island (1936)