The Legend of the Lone Ranger

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The Legend of the Lone Ranger
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William A. Fraker
Written by	Ivan Goff Ben Roberts William Roberts Michael Kane Jerry Derloshon
Based on	Characters created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker
Produced by	Walter Coblenz
Starring	Klinton Spilsbury Michael Horse Christopher Lloyd Matt Clark Juanin Clay Jason Robards
Cinematography	László Kovács
Edited by	Thomas Stanford
Music by	John Barry
Production companies	Eaves Movie Ranch ITC Entertainment Wrather Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Associated Film Distribution
Release date	May 22, 1981 (1981-05-22)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States[1]
Language	English
Budget	$13 million[2]–$18 million[3][4]
Box office	$12.6 million

The Legend of the Lone Ranger is a 1981 American

Producers outraged fans by refusing to allow previous Lone Ranger actor Clayton Moore to wear the character's mask during public appearances, and created further bad publicity when it became known that the voice of leading man Spilsbury was dubbed by another actor, James Keach.^[5] The film was a critical and commercial failure, and Spilsbury has not appeared in any films since.

In 1854 in Texas, the outlaw Butch Cavendish and his gang of outlaws are chasing a young Comanche boy named Tonto. He rides into a thicket and falls off his horse and down an embankment. John Reid, a boy who was already there, hides Tonto, and the outlaws turn their attention to a small village. They kill everyone there, except John. Tonto takes John to his reservation and teaches him to shoot a bow and arrow with precision, how to fight, and overall the way they live.

The two eventually become blood brothers, and John later leaves the reservation for Detroit, grows up to become a lawyer, and takes a stagecoach to a town to set up his law practice. The coach is robbed by Cavendish’s gang, with the shotgun rider getting killed and the driver wounded. John stops the coach and the outlaws take a mailbag containing property deeds.

At the town, John meets the uncle (the owner of the local newspaper) of a beautiful young woman named Amy who was on the same stagecoach as John. John tells them he is going to the Texas Rangers station to visit his brother Dan. During his visit, word reaches them about the whereabouts of Cavendish after some of the gang ride into town during a festival and kill Amy’s uncle. Collins, one of the Rangers, rides ahead to scout for signs of Cavendish, unbeknownst to the Rangers that he is part of Cavendish’s gang. Cavendish and his gang ambush the Rangers (Reid among them), killing all except Reid, who is rescued by Tonto.

When John recovers from his wounds, Tonto teaches him to shoot with silver bullets, and he captures and tames a white horse, which he names

John and Tonto sneak into the Cavendish compound and rescue Grant, and blow up the compound with dynamite they found while avoiding the guards. Cavendish attempts to flee the United States Cavalry, but John pursues and ultimately apprehends Cavendish, who is arrested. The President thanks John and Tonto, and the pair ride away as President Grant asks, “Who is that masked man?”

Cavendish gang

The rights to the character had been bought in 1954 by Jack Wrather, an oil billionaire, and his wife Bonita Granville. They had made many attempts to create a Lone Ranger movie that would appeal to a modern audience, including making Tonto an equal partner and mentor to the Lone Ranger. By the late 1970s they believed that the story was ripe for retelling in an epic vein similar to Richard Donner's Superman (1978), with the potential for sequels.^[8]

In October 1977

"This is a grand old western in the heroic and glorious style of the cowboy picture," said Walter Coblentz, producer. "This is not Blazing Saddles. When he puts on his mask you're going to believe it."^[12]

Martin Starger said they were doing the film because "Heroes are needed today more than ever... We're playing it straight. This isn't a spoof or a satire."^[13]

Coblentz added, " I decided the Indian element needed upgrading. I decided to treat the Lone Ranger and Tonto more as equals. I wanted their relationship to be dignified. I wanted to take advantage of Indian lore."^[14]

In September 1979 Coblentz announced the director would be William Fraker. Fraker was normally a cinematographer but he had directed Monte Walsh which Coblentz admired.^[15]

William Fraker the director said "The Lone Ranger will work if we can make him real" and said he was influenced by Lawrence of Arabia.^[16]

Two of the movie's four screenwriters,

Actors considered for the lead included Stephen Collins, Nicholas Guest, and Bruce Boxleitner. The part eventually went to Klinton Spilsbury, a photographer who had studied art (particularly sculpting) in New York. Spilsbury, whose father was a football coach at the University of Arizona, had grown up on a ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico. Spilsbury signed to a three-picture deal.^[12]

"He looked great in the mask, which seems like an odd thing to say,” Starger said. “But that was important because we had to find an actor whose eyes were not close together. The mask doesn’t look good if the eyes are too close.”^[18]

Tonto was played by Michael Horse, a silversmith by trade, whose only other acting experience had been a bit part in a Raquel Welch TV-movie. "For me this is an adventure and fun," he said. "Who knows if I can act. I'll soon find out. And if I'm a flop I'll just go off fishing."^[12] Horse would later make himself known as a supporting regular on David Lynch's prime-time experimental television series Twin Peaks.

This film was shot in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and California starting April 1980. Many scenes were shot in Monument Valley, Carson National Forest, Santa Fe National Forest, and Valley of Fire State Park. The fictional border town of Del Rio was constructed twenty miles outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.^[10][18]

Spilsbury was reportedly difficult during the shoot. “He came onto the set as if he was playing the role of a movie star,” says Lloyd. “I don’t know whether it was an affectation that he chose to bring with him, or whether he sincerely felt that that’s what was called for. And this was a problem from beginning to end. He did things that simply hindered the production.”^[18] This included getting involved in several brawls at night during the shoot.^[19]

The movie's ballad-narration, The Man in the Mask, was performed by

The filmmakers were unhappy with Spilsbury's acting. "You just never believed what he was saying because he memorized the lines but he had never internalized them,” says Jim Van Wyck, who was a DGA assistant director trainee on the film. “It was like he was reading the script, but the intonations were wrong.”[18] This dialogue was eventually overdubbed for the entire movie by actor James Keach.^[20]

"His inflections were a little strange, but I actually didn’t think he was that bad, to be honest with you,” says Keach. “I don’t know why they didn’t have him redo it. But it was a very well-paying job at the time, so I accepted it.”^[18]

Five horses were used to play Silver.^[21]

The film was part of a brief revival of the Western in 1980, which also included The Long Riders, Heaven's Gate and The Mountain Men.^[22]

Part of the plan was to shoot a feature film with a new actor to replace the 65-year-old Clayton Moore, who had starred in the long-running and hugely successful television series for much of the 1950s.^[23]

Wrather had a vision for the retelling of the story, and he felt that the profile of the character would be devalued by Moore's continuing to appear in costume, as he had done for many years entertaining children in hospitals and appearing at county and state fairs. Also, he did not want audiences to believe that the aging Moore would reprise his role as the Lone Ranger. In 1975, Wrather asked Moore to stop portraying the character, but he refused. In 1979, the producers obtained a court injunction barring Moore from appearing in public with his trademark black mask. He was also permitted to sign autographs only as "The Masked Man." Moore responded by changing his costume slightly and replacing the mask with similar-looking wraparound sunglasses, and by cross-litigating against Wrather. The suit was eventually dismissed. Wrather finally allowed Moore to continue openly playing the character again in 1984 shortly before Wrather's death.^[10][24]

“I thought that was really kind of nasty and unnecessary,” said Christopher Lloyd. “Nothing Moore was doing was really interfering with the film. I thought that was kind of terrible.”^[18]

The film was to have initially been released by AFD on December 19, 1980. However, the film was postponed to the summer of 1981 after the

Jack Wrather was good friends with Ronald and Nancy Reagan and the Reagans were to attend the premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Owing the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in March 1981, they did not but Reagan sent a tape record of congratulations to be played at the premiere.^[10][29]

The film was released in 1981 to massive negative publicity over the

Lew Grade, who invested in the movie, had managed to sell it to TV for $7.5 million, and also to HBO.^[31]

Marvin Starger claimed the film cost $13 million rather than the reported $18 million but said with advertising and prints costing $10 million the film lost $10 million.^[2] Fraker never directed again and Spilsbury never acted again.^[18]

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The film received generally mediocre reviews:^[32] Time Out London said, "The mystery is how Fraker, a gifted cameraman who made a superb directing debut in Westerns with Monte Walsh, could produce such a clinker as this."^[33]

The Los Angeles Times said "you can have a very good time watching it."^[34]

In a 1981 episode of the weekly television movie review program,