So I received this strange DVD the other day from S'More Entertainment, presumably packaged to cash in on the fever for the upcoming Cowboys & Aliens. Comprised of eight movies on four discs, it's called A Big Box of Cowboys, Aliens, Robots and Death Rays.
By all appearances, these are all genuine "B" grade Westerns, made in the 1930s and early 1940s, and each running between 50 and 70 minutes. Here's what the box has inside.
Radio Ranch (1935) stars "singing cowboy" Gene Autry in a bizarre combination of the Western, the musical, and the sci-fi film. In it, Gene discovers a race of advanced creatures living beneath the surface of the earth. This is an edited-down, feature-length version of the serial The Phantom Empire, which is available elsewhere. Ghost Patrol (1936) features cowboys versus a death ray that brings down airplanes full of money.
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Tombstone Canyon (1932) is about a man who, while searching for the key to his own past, tangles with the "phantom killer." Riders of the Whistling Skull (1937) stars Ray "Crash" Corrigan as part of the "Three Mesquiteers" (along with Bob Livingston and Max Terhune). The plot involves a missing professor, a lost city, an Indian cult, and walking mummies. (It could be one of the inspirations for the Indiana Jones films.)
Sky Bandits (1940) somehow manages to combine planes and gold smuggling. Gun Packer (1938) is about more stolen gold, with the hero going undercover to find the mysterious secret as to how the gold disappears.
Saddle Mountain Roundup (1941) brings back Ray "Crash" Corrigan in a Western murder story. And finally, The Vanishing Riders (1935) is about a couple of cowhands who create a haunted town to scare away cattle rustlers.
I must admit, I am impressed at the research that went into this thing! I have not been able to dig into this festival of saddlesore weirdness, but I intend to keep it on hand for some impomptu late-night viewing someday soon. (For those that don't wish to shell out $20 for the actual discs, most of these movies are available for viewing online, free, at archive.org. Links are provided.)

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