Robert Emmett Tansey's Death Valley Rangers is a sleepy Poverty Row Western notable for two reasons. First, it features a trio of paunchy has-beens for leads: Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Bob Steele. All of them had seen better days. In some sense, seeing them in this film is sort of like watching Bela Lugosi in any of his Poverty Row pictures. The film doesn’t really progress, it awkwardly stumbles from one plot point to the next. That said, there is an odd plot point about a villain who invents a chemical process through which he can return gold into ore. It's the kind of revelation that jolts you up from your coma long enough to mutter, "What in the HELL are they talking about?" Other than that, the film is as tired as its tired, should-have-been-retired leads.
3/10
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