Hi-Yo Silver
Cast & Crew
William Witney
Lee Powell
Hi-yo Silver
Chief Thundercloud
Herman Brix
Lynne Roberts
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As the Civil War comes to a close, the state of Texas is overrun with gangs of marauders, who take the law into their own hands to terrorize the honest ranchers and cattlemen. The leader of the most powerful of these gangs is an outlaw named Smith, who kills a special investigator from Washington named Jeffries and then assumes his identity in order to extort illegally high taxes from the helpless ranchers. Organizing a large, lawless band, Smith rules the territory until President Abraham Lincoln hears of the situation and appoints Blanchard as administrator of Texas. Blanchard and his daughter Joan soon arrive in Pecos, but after Joan's life is threatened, Blanchard signs his authority over to Smith. The Lone Ranger, the sole survivor of the disbanded Texas Rangers, whose real name is Allen King, learns of this injustice and reorganizes the Rangers with a nucleus of four trustworthy men and Tonto, his Indian friend. During their first skirmish with Smith's band, one of the Rangers is killed and buried in their cave hideout. Blanchard and Joan, now prisoners of Smith send word through the mission priest, Father McKim, that Smith is planning to steal a shipment of silver that has been collected as taxes. The Rangers, however, steal the silver before Smith can act and secret it in their mountain hideout. For their deed, the Rangers are captured and imprisoned at Fort Bentley, where they are to be tried. Knowing that the silver is not safe in the mountains, the Lone Ranger, with the assistance of Tonto, escapes from prison, returns the silver to the authorities and then helps the other Rangers to escape. Meanwhile, Smith learns that Joan and her father have discovered his true identity and plans to send them away. Joan sends word to the Lone Ranger of their danger, who rescues them and takes them to the cave, where they are attacked by Smith and his men. Riding for help, the Lone Ranger gathers the ranchers together and after a bloody battle, captures the entire band of outlaws. After the fight, only one Ranger is left alive, the Lone Ranger, who reluctantly declines the honor of reorganizing the Rangers so that he may ride alone to aid those that need assistance.
Cast
Lee Powell
Hi-yo Silver
Chief Thundercloud
Herman Brix
Lynne Roberts
Stanley Andrews
George Cleveland
William Farnum
Hal Taliaferro
Lane Chandler
George Letz
John Merton
Sammy Mckim
Tom London
Raphael Bennett
Maston Williams
Frank Mcglynn Sr.
Raymond Hatton
Crew
Franklyn Adreon
Robert Beche
Alberto Colombo
Mack D'agostino
Ronald Davidson
Lois Eby
Louis Germonprez
William Nobles
Barry Shipman
Sol C. Siegel
Edward Todd
Helene Turner
Al Wilson
George Worthing Yates
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The Lone Ranger radio series, created by George Trendle and Fran Striker, was first broadcast on WXYZ in Detroit, MI, on January 30, 1933. It was then picked up by the Mutual Broadcast system. The film Hi-Yo Silver was a condensation of the fifteen chapter Republic serial The Lone Ranger, which was released in March 1938. According to the Variety review of the feature, Raymond Hatton and "an unbilled youngster" were added to the cast of the feature and shown "In scenes whose purpose is to narrate the flashback around which the major story unfolds," however, Hatton is not otherwise billed in reviews or copyright records. Modern sources note that the "youngster" was played by Dickie Jones. On January 25, 1939, Republic released another fifteen part serial, The Lone Ranger Rides Again, which starred Robert Livingston as the Lone Ranger. On September 15, 1949 the Warner Bros. television series starring Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto was first broadcast. That series continued until 1961. In 1956, Moore and Silverheels starred in the film The Lone Ranger for Warner Bros., and in 1958, the two starred in The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, a United Artists release. William A. Fraker directed The Legend of the Lone Ranger for Universal in 1981, starring Klinton Spilsbury in the title tole. A briefly run Warner Bros. television series, The Lone Ranger, began on February 26, 2002, starring Chad Michael Murray as the masked hero, who, in that version was Harvard educated.
