What I've read about Ken Maynard on IMDb and wikipedia makes it sound like he was a real jerk. Rarely have I read biographies of actors where they were more hated and more self-destructive than this movie cowboy. Heck in the IMDb biography, it says 'To never have met Maynard was reportedly a blessing'!! But, because he was so unpleasant he ended up going from an A-list actor with a huge salary in 1935 to a bum who worked for a tiny fraction only a few short years later. Here in "Death Rides the Range", instead of being in a top picture for a top studio (commanding $10,000 a picture), he's in a film that cost only $15,000 to make and he was paid a reported $1500. Talk about karma! It did get worse--by the mid-1940s he was getting only $800 a film....if he could find work at all.
So is it possible to make a good film for only $15,000? Maybe, though this film would make it seem that the answer is a definite NO! The problems are many--and the worst is the quality of the supporting characters. Several seem illiterate and a little addle-brained in front of the camera and it just looks like the tiny studio would put any one in the film provided they didn't want much money!! Rarely (and this includes Ed Wood movies) have I seen such bad acting. Additionally, the terrible writing didn't help. While the basic story idea is interesting, how it was handled was just completely inept. All in all, a very bad film--one that I had a hard time completing.
So is it possible to make a good film for only $15,000? Maybe, though this film would make it seem that the answer is a definite NO! The problems are many--and the worst is the quality of the supporting characters. Several seem illiterate and a little addle-brained in front of the camera and it just looks like the tiny studio would put any one in the film provided they didn't want much money!! Rarely (and this includes Ed Wood movies) have I seen such bad acting. Additionally, the terrible writing didn't help. While the basic story idea is interesting, how it was handled was just completely inept. All in all, a very bad film--one that I had a hard time completing.