Review of The Vigilantes Are Coming

I gave up watching this film in its serial form when it transpired in chapter 4 that Raymond Hatton and Big Boy Williams who were shot dead at the end of chapter 3 were not only miraculously raised to life, but acted as if they hadn't been shot at all and didn't need raising. I decided then and there that I didn't need them either. A wise decision, as this particular fault occurs yet another four times before the serial runs its course. I'm pleased to say that in Grapevine Video's very good cutdown of Republic's 82 minutes version, Hatton and Williams hardly figure in the action at all. In fact, measuring strictly by on-screen time, the stars are Fred Kohler (one of my favorite villains) and Robert Warwick (not one of my favorite actors, but he has some good lines here) with Robert Livingstone making a somewhat immature hero who became rather dashing when doubled by Yakima Canutt – which was at least four or five times, maybe more. Yak also has two or three scenes as one of Kohler's henchmen. William Farnum's somewhat verbose padre has been pared considerably but he still has a great deal of footage in the cutdown, but Williams and Hatton are cut to the bone. I think our lovely heroine, Kay Hughes, has more scenes. Despite the fact that the serial over-ran its budget by just over $5,000, it still cost Republic only $87,655 including editing, titling, scoring and negative costs, but not positive prints and advertising. It was money well spent. By contrast, the studio's most expensive serial was "Captain America" (1943) which cost a whopping $222,906!