One of the earliest surviving motion pictures is that of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons heavyweight championship bout held in Carson City, Nevada in 1897. That historic event is the backdrop of this film Vigilantes Of Boomtown where some crooks are planning to steal the gate proceeds from the fight.Boxing at the time was illegal in many places, but not for the most part in the rough and tumble west. Why Peggy Stewart is so adamantly opposed to the fight is beyond me. But that's part of the plot.The Corbett camp is using the Duchess's ranch as their training camp so Red Ryder and Little Beaver get into the plot that way. There's also perennial western villain at Republic Studios Roy Barcroft who has some history with Red Ryder and is hoping to meet up with him and settle accounts at the same time he pulls off the caper of the gate.Roscoe Karns has a really nice role as Billy Delaney, Corbett's legendary manager who Stewart's dog takes a real 'liking' to.Still Vigilantes Of Boomtown is a subpar entree in the Red Ryder series.

At times in this Red Ryder western, I was confused as to whether or not this was set in a fairly modern time corresponding to the film's age or because of some of the costumes, it was late 19th Century as a description claimed. There's a very funny opening concerning fighting promoter Roscoe Karnes, a veteran of fast talking city folk, yet still not all that green in the nerves of his brain. Allen Lane's Red Ryder takes on corruption concerning the prizefighting racket, once again dealing with Peggy Stewart as the heroine and Roy Barcroft as the villain, but playing different parts than the previous entry, "Stagecoach to Denver". Like that film, this has different themes than most B westerns do, but I just couldn't follow the mixture of big city modern gangsters and traditional western archetypes mixing together as if two eras had crossed in some sort of Twilight Show mash-up.

In this fine entry from the Red Ryder series, Red Ryder battles a kidnapping plot, greedy henchmen and some pretty bad galoots intent on disrupting a championship bout.Allan "Rocky" Lane does a good job in the lead role, though he was never quite as convincing as the great Wild Bill Elliott had been. The film is not very historically accurate, but does provide good B-western action. George Chesboro is , as usual, appropriately evil as a villain.While this is not the best film of the series, it is a marked improvement over the previous Stagecoach to Denver. Fans of Red Ryder & the Duchess should enjoy this one.