Directed by Harry Keller
Produced by Rudy Ralston
Written by M. Coates Webster
Music by Stanley Wilson
Cinematography: John MacBurnie
Film Editor: Harold Minter
Cast: Allan “Rocky” Lane (Marshal Rocky Lane), Eddy Waller (Sheriff Nugget Clark), Mona Knox (Alice Scott), Roy Barcroft (Ed Brill), Isabel Randolph (Deborah Cranston), Richard Crane (Deputy Dan Reed), William Henry (Bert Cranston), Edward Clark (Printer Tom), Pierre Watkin (Head Marshal), Stanley Andrews (Henry Scott), Boyd ‘Red’ Morgan, Fred Aldrich, Art Dillard, Roy Engel, Marshall Reed, Tex Terry, Dale Van Sickel, Black Jack
__________
I’m embarrassed to admit that this is the first Allan “Rocky” Lane picture to be featured on this blog. I’ve got to get around to Monte Hale, too!
Thundering Caravans (1952) was one of Lane’s later pictures for Republic. His last, El Paso Stampede (1953), was released a little over a year later. Republic would be done with the series Western entirely after 1954’s Phantom Stallion with Rex Allen.
Allan Lane grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and dropped out of Notre Dame to give acting a go. He was spotted and signed by Fox, but moved over to Warner Bros. That didn’t work out so well, and Lane gave up the movies for a while. He was back in supporting parts at Fox in the mid-30s, and after a few thing like RKO’s The Law West Of Tombstone (1938), he made his way over to Republic.
After serials like King Of The Royal Mounted (1940) and The Tiger Woman (1944) with Linda Stirling, Lane was launched as a Republic cowboy star. Next, in 1946, he took over the Red Ryder role after Wild Bill Elliott left the series. When that ran its course, he was back to playing Allan “Rocky” Lane through 1953. From there, he did mostly TV guest roles until providing the voice of Mr. Ed (1961-1966).
Thundering Caravans has Lane a marshal coming to the aid of the sheriff of Edgewater, who’s trying to get to the bottom of a series of robberies. Wagons of ore are disappearing, and the local newspaper is badmouthing the sheriff as election days comes near.
Eddy Waller is a hoot as Nugget, the sheriff. Waller was a constant in these Lane pictures, but he wasn’t a sidekick in the regular sense. While he’s always named Nugget Clark, he’s a different character from film to film. In Thundering Caravans, he and Lane don’t know each other at all.
Roy Barcroft doesn’t have a lot of screen time as Ed Brill, an escaped convict, but he gets to be plenty despicable before he’s through. Barcroft was a given in Republic pictures at this time, since he had an exclusive 10-year contract with the studio. They put him in everything they could.
The girl this time around is Mona Knox, an actress and pinup girl who appeared in a handful of films and some TV in the 50s and 60s. She appeared in Flying Leathernecks (1951), The Las Vegas Story (1952) and a couple of Bowery Boys pictures. She doesn’t have a whole lot to do in Thundering Caravans.
Harry Keller was an editor turned director, and he did a number of these later Lane Westerns, including the last one, El Paso Stampede. (He did the Rex Allen’s last, too.) Keller made the move to TV, with some Universal-International Westerns here and there — Quantez (1957), Day Of The Badman (1958) and Seven Ways From Sundown (1960). As with a lot of editors who climb into the director’s chair, you can count on Keller’s pictures to be well-paced, with some solid actions scenes.
Solid action was the order of the day at Republic as their series Westerns wound down. They’re short (usually under an hour), with plenty of riding and shooting (some of it stock footage), and the casts and sets are kept to a minimum. Thundering Caravans looks like it was shot at Iverson Ranch — some rear-projection footage is definitely Iverson.
It’s a shame Republics like Thundering Caravans aren’t around on DVD or Blu-Ray. They’re a lot of fun.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
Well,Good Golly Gosh, Toby! Very good to find ‘Rocky’ Lane featured here!
He made 53 westerns in the Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane series 1947-53 and, while none are classic westerns of course, neither are any of them clunkers. The Lane series was strong in the writing department and Lane made a great action hero. And as the saying goes “he wore the hat”!
Toby, good write-up on THUNDERING CARAVANS. I agree that these Republic Pictures are a lot of fun and it is a shame they’re not on DVD. Is THUNDERING CARAVANS being shown anywhere? As a youngster, I never saw any Allan “Rocky” Lane Westerns. They weren’t shown on local TV in my neck of the woods. The first Rocky Lane Western I ever saw was VIGILANTES OF BOOMTOWN(filmed in 1946, released 1947), which is a Red Ryder Western. I saw it on PBS-TV in 1982. It was part of a series hosted by Sunset Carson titled SIX-GUN HEROES, which featured vintage B-Western Movies, including some of Carson’s own. Does anyone remember this series from the 1980’s?
Yep, Walter, I remember that “Six-Gun Heroes” show with Sunset Carson doing host duties, although I didn’t get to see it too often. Rocky Lane’s “Vigilantes of Boomtown” (1947), along with Rex Allen’s “Colorado Sundown” (1952), always circulated a lot, as they were rare instances of post-war Republics that had fallen into public domain.
I didn’t have access to a PBS affiliate when I was younger, but here in Texas my grandparents picked one up, and I recall on Friday nights the station ran a lot of those 1930s poverty-row B-westerns, of Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Harry Carey and such. In addition, there was an independent station that aired a B-western triple-feature every Saturday morning, comprised of similar-vintage fare of Johnny Mack Brown, Three Mesquiteers, Bob Steele, Rex Bell, Jack Perrin, and others. And this was all well into the 1970s. So, I saw all these things, and developed quite a taste for them. To this day, I find something very cozy and relaxing about such old-time, low-budget westerns. Just wish better prints were available for a lot of this stuff.
I was really fortunate and got to see a lot of these series Westerns on film, either at home or at Western film conventions and club meetings.
Bert, I didn’t have access to a PBS affiliate as a youngster either, until I first managed to pull in Channel 10 WKNO-TV, Memphis, Tennessee, which was 140 miles away from where I lived. This was in 1973, but WKNO didn’t run any poverty-row Westerns. I did get to watch several MGM silent movies and some foreign movies. I first watched Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI(1954) and YOJIMBO(1961) on WKNO.
Channel 8 KAIT-TV, Jonesboro, Arkansas aired a block of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers Republic Pictures from the 1930’s and ’40’s on Saturday mornings during the 1960’s. I watched them every week and at the time I didn’t know they were movies cut down to 54 minutes, so they would fit in a hour slot for TV viewings. KAIT aired other Republic Pictures starring William “Wild Bill” Elliott, Rod Cameron, and John Wayne. These ran through the 1970’s as well. I enjoyed them then and I still do today.
Walter and Bert, here in the UK we had Saturday morning ‘pictures’ where these westerns were shown but I never went to them. I did know all the names and faces from comic books (Roy, Gene, Wild Bill, Johnny Mack Brown etc) plus Maurice Speed’s Western Film Annual published 1950-1962 was a fantastic source and I still have all those books.
BBC TV aired Hopalong Cassidy, Tex Ritter and other series for kids from the late 1940s for nearly a decade. I saw my first one in 1953.
It wasn’t until about 1970 that I finally actually saw many series westerns though. BBC TV did occasionally air Tim Holts and Hoppys but it was the London Film Convention where you saw 8 such westerns throughout a day (and made friends and contacts).
Like you, Walter, I still enjoy them to this day. I have managed to locate pretty reasonable prints for a lot of them now thankfully.
Jerry, I watched the HOPALONG CASSIDY TV Series, which first aired from 1952-54. in syndicated reruns on Channel 4 KARK-TV, Little Rock, Arkansas. This was in the 1960’s. Also, Channel 3 WREC-TV, Memphis, Tennessee aired HOPALONG CASSIDY Paramount Pictures movies from the 1930’s and ’40’s on Saturday’s in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. It wasn’t until 1980 when I attended showings of several B-Westerns at the Ida Waldron Theater in Conway, Arkansas, that I got to see on the big screen Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Bob Steele, Ken Maynard, Tex Ritter, and Johnny Mack Brown. The Producer/Host of the Arkansas Educational Television Network THE GOOD TIMES PICTURE SHOW(1976-98) Ray Nielsen presented these movies.
Back in the day, I never thought about having the chance to own so many VHS and now DVD’S of so many Westerns and other movies. We now live in a “Golden Age” of viewing. Also, we get to share information with people all over the World.
I so agree, Walter, just how fortunate we are to not only see all these films but also to build online friendships around the globe and share our love for the films.
Agreed Jerry and Walter .Since joining this blog,my knowledge of westerns has increased and it is great to have friendships with people from all over the world who love these films.
Graham, this is a good thing. We are all fans of these entertaining stories that are told visually, which have led to friendships across the World.
Stay safe and healthy.
Amending my earlier post, I’m thinking maybe “Vigilantes of Boomtown” (1947) isn’t the public domain one, but rather “Stagecoach to Denver” (1946). Yet, for some reason I used to see “Vigilantes” pop up on television quite a bit, and it was indeed the first Rocky Lane film that I recall seeing.
The Lane series at Republic was quite consistently good, all the way to the end, even when the budgets were getting tighter. Eddy Waller’s milder, more low-key take on the sidekick roles was also always a plus.
Hi Bert,
Correcting my earlier figure, Allan Lane made 51 starring westerns, of which 38 were Rocky Lane films, and, as you say, these were consistently good right to the end despite tighter budgets and shortening from 60 minutes to 54.
I think Eddy Waller’s role as Nugget Clark was maybe second only to George Hayes. And of course Eddy C. Waller was a fine character actor anyway.
Jerry & Bert, I first remember Eddy Waller as stagecoach driver Mose Shell on the really good Western TV series LARAMIE(1959-63). I’ve read where the part was written for him. I always liked to see him in Westerns, because he was a good character actor.
I was searching for something else when I came across a Blu Ray from
Germany of AMBUSH AT TOMAHAWK GAP. Before we get too excited it’s
from an outfit called White Pearl Classics which as far as I know are a
bootleg imprint and have recently moved into the Blu Ray market.
The blurb on Amazon de says it is from a recent sampling in HD which
I should imagine is just an upscaled DVD at any rate it’s an October release.
An official release of AMBUSH AT TOMAHAWK GAP on Blu Ray would,of
course be a revelation.
Between Amazon Prime and TUBI, there are a lot of the B-westerns from the ’30s available for streaming. Occasionally, some later Republic films show up as well. TUBI recently added THE TOPEKA TERROR (1945) and RUSTLERS ON HORSEBACK (1950) from Allan Lane’s catalog. Plenty of early Steele, Tyler, Maynard and others are available. One warning on both services: If you need closed captioning, some titles on Amazon Prime are laughably awful. The other day I was watching a film where the bad guy drawls, “Stay where ya are, sister”. On the captioning it read as “Stereo Scissors”. LOL. On the other hand, TUBI does have ads during the movie. But, it is the BEST at inserting the ads. Ads don’t come crashing in during the middle of a scene. They are always at a scene change and the longest ad break I’ve encountered is 90 seconds. Usually, there’s only 2 ad breaks during a film.
John K, thanks for the warning concerning Pearl Classics. I agree that a Blu-ray release of AMBUSH AT TOMAHAWK GAP(filmed in 1952, released 1953) would be a revelation. I think this is a good Western Movie and is well worth watching. This is one of those times when everything seems to fall in place to make a good tight budget programmer of worthwhile entertainment.
Prolific movie and TV writer David Lang writes a good story and screenplay. Wallace MacDonald is a good producer, who started out as a movie actor in 1912. Director Fred Sears knew how to make good movies on, or under budget, as well as on, or ahead of schedule. Also. this 73 minute Western is in technicolor with photography by Henry Freulich.
The movie has a cast of good actors with John Hodiak, John Derek, David Brian, Ray Teal, Maria Elena Marques, John Qualen, Percy Helton, Trevor Bardette, John Doucette, and John War Eagle.
AMBUSH AT TOMAHAWK GAP is an old style Western, but it is somewhat ahead of its time. I don’t want to give away too much. A good one to see and enjoy.
I have a distinct fondness for Columbia westerns produced by Wallace Macdonald and often directed by Fred F. Sears. They made a number of darn good non-westerns too.