Episode 335: The Lone Ranger - "The Masked Deputy" (November 16, 1950)
The Lone Ranger very briefly follows the law
What I watched: The tenth episode of the second season of The Lone Ranger, a kid-friendly Western created by George Trendle and starring Clayton Moore as the titular hero and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. "The Masked Deputy" was written by Harry Poppe Jr, directed by George B. SEitz, and featured guest stars Stuart Randall, Dave Willock, and Carol Thurston. "The Masked Deputy" aired on Thursday, November 16, 1950 on ABC at 7:30 pm., and is available on YouTube.
Starring: Born in 1909, Stuart Randall had a wide-ranging career in showbusiness at the tail end of the vaudeville era, including leading his own orchestra under the name Larry Southern and performing on stage. He transitioned from singing to acting in the 1940s, acting mostly in Western B-movies. He would go on to be a staple of Western TV shows, so hopefully we’ll see him again soon. He really brings a sense of gravitas to an otherwise fairly flat villain in this episode.
What happened: The Ranger and Tonto are investigating a case of cattle rustling, where the stolen herds have mysteriously vanished. They decide that the perpetrators must be hiding in town as common citizens, because they’ve been in previous episodes of this show. Tonto goes into town to get the newspaper. It’s a hometown paper by Tom Turner (Willock) and his wife (Thurston). While he’s there, he witnesses a man named Bradley (Randall) come in and offer to buy the newspaper. This is apparently a long-standing offer, with an element of threat, due to the paper’s editorials against Bradley.
As soon as Bradley leaves, three goons come in with guns drawn. Busy place. The goons start smashing the print equipment, which leads to a scuffle. Tonto takes down one guy but gets knocked out by a rock. (Tonto concussion count for the season: 4) He returns to the Ranger with a “small bump”, and tells him about the trouble.
When the Ranger arrives at the newspaper office, the Turners explain that the goons took all their money in addition to their equipment. Tom states his suspicion that Bradley is using his position at the railroad company to set up raids on incoming shipments of cattle. The Ranger asks about the local sheriff, who is a scared old man named Higgins. The Ranger visits Higgins, who acknowledges that he’s not a good sheriff anymore, and talks him into appointing the eponymous masked deputy.
We see Bradley executing his scheme, getting information about a herd headed to town and providing it to his goons. One of the minions tells Higgins about the Ranger’s appointment, and the masked man quickly appears in the room. He arrests Bradley for being behind the newspaper raid. As soon as the Ranger leaves, however, Bradley intimidates Higgins into releasing him. To be fair, I wouldn’t cross Stuart Randall either. Bradley orders Higgins to come with him to take on the Ranger and Tonto.
Of course, this has all been factored into the Ranger’s plans. He’s going to follow Bradley to the stolen cattle. Bradley realizes that he’s being followed, and decides to lead our heroic duo into an ambush. The Ranger in turn figures out that he’s been spotted. Real game of chess, this is. Bradley is suspicious of Higgins and takes his guns.
There is, of course, a big scuffle, where the Ranger subdues Bradley. Higgins swears not to let Bradley out, now that he has enough evidence to convict him. This has convinced the Ranger that Higgins will be a good sheriff from now on, and Tom will be his deputy. Another journalist co-opted by law enforcement!
What I thought: This episode immediately gets me on its side by setting some of its action alongside an old-timey newspaper. I love old newspaper storylines, the mechanical equipment and the plucky girl reporters. I love the newspaper plot on Deadwood, even if the main actor in it is a pedophile. (He gives a great performance, to be honest.)
Unfortunately, the plot drifts away from our friendly newspaper-folk, into a fairly standard tale of the Ranger and Tonto uncovering that a seemingly genial citizen is actually a violent criminal. The final conclusion is also a bit disappointing, as it doesn’t feel like the Ranger outsmarts Bradley’s trap so much as that he wins because his name is in the name of the show.
The hook for this episode, as expressed in the title, is that in this instance the Ranger is actually operating as part of the law, being officially made a deputy. However, this change doesn’t really change anything about the plot or how it unfolds. I’m not sure if I expected a scene where the Ranger has to fill out a form for use of force or what, but he could at least use his badge to arrest someone or get information or something. Or we could just see what the newspaper people are doing. There’s nothing more entertaining than journalism.
Coming up next: Kukla, Fran and Ollie close out the week with an early start to their Christmas shopping.