THE MYSTERY OF THE HOODED HORSEMEN. Grand National, 1937. Tex Ritter, White Flash, Iris Meredith, Horace Murphy, Charles King, Heber Snow, Ray Whitley and the Range Ramblers. Director: Ray Taylor.

   The Mystery of the Hooded Horsemen doesn’t have much Mystery, but it does have a lot of hooded horsemen, charging across the dusty trails of Gower Gulch with commendable energy.

   This is, in fact, a rather ambitious undertaking for a “B” Western, with some vigorous stunting and tricky camerawork in the many Chase scenes.

   It stars Tex Ritter, so it’s not much on subtlety, and anyone who’s seen more than one of these will spot the Secret Heavy as soon as he looks up from his card game and flashes his oily smile, but director Ray Taylor plays the familiar melody without a trace of contempt, and manages to wrap it up just like it was fresh goods.

   I should add that Mystery features one of the earliest appearances of that ultimate Cult Actor, Hank Worden, here billed as Heber Snow, and playing a dumb deputy with the disarming quirkiness that would endear him to my generation.

    Editorial Comment:   Not only can this movie be found easily on DVD (see above), it can be seen for free in its entirety (60m) on www.archive.org. (For some reason, the title on the DVD has been subtly changed.)