Expected more

Excellent, a Must See

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

When it's discovered that Texas Ranger Eddie Dean and The Tioga Kid, notorious outlaw are lookalikes, Texas Ranger Captain Terry Frost decides Dean is the guy to investigate some reported horse thieving that The Tioga Kid has been accused of.Well The Tioga Kid has been besmirched the real horse thieving is headed by Dennis Moore, but that doesn't stop The Tioga Kid from wanting a cut of the action that he's being accused of heading anyway. About this time Dean and sidekick Roscoe Ates arrive and Dean gets to meet Dean and starts reassess the situation and his life in general.The Tioga Kid, the last PRC film to go before the movie-going public is simply reedited from a previous Dean film Driftin' River. A lot of the same cast members repeated their roles. It didn't get any better with a title change.My big objections was the outlaw band massacring a cavalry patrol and the whole sequence is repeated. If the Texas Rangers didn't get them, you can be sure the US Cavalry would have as these people don't even bother to disguise themselves in any way. Kind of stupid to do that because there would be no place they could flee to in the USA with that hanging over their heads.Eddie Dean had a nice singing voice and it's a pity he was not showcased the way those Republic Picture cowboys were.

When I saw Tioga Kid, it was in a viewing room at one of the western conventions. Jennifer Holt had just passed away and I felt as if I had lost a sister rather than just a close friend. In the last scene, Roscoe Ates suggests Eddie Dean and Jennifer join up to run the ranch and Eddie responds in true cowboy hero fashion with the song "Ain't No Girl Got A Brand on Me." As Eddie and Roscoe mount their horses and ride away, Jenny folds her arms and leans back against the front porch post with that familiar smile. The last shot shows her waving to Eddie. I thought if I had been the producer of a TV newscast which gave the obits to former movie stars, I would have included that shot as the newscaster read the obit. Even today, it brings a lump to the throat of this old Front Row Kid. Love ya Scorpio.

Cowboy crooner Eddie Dean has a dual role in this one, that of his regular character using his own name, and that of outlaw Clip Mason, The Tioga Kid. Their paths cross at Dow City in the Tombstone Territory of Arizona, when Eddie and sidekick Soapy Jones (Roscoe Ates) get wind of a cattle rustling operation. They hire on as hands for pretty rancher Jenny Morgan (Jennifer Holt), while Eddie tries to find out more about the outlaw that looks just like him. One tip for viewers, good guy Eddie - white shirt; bad guy Tioga - black shirt.One wouldn't consider Dean to be one of the more physical cowboys, he seems slighter of build than most. That doesn't prevent him from having some of the wilder fist fights you'll see in a Western. Nothing in the vicinity is safe; in this one a brawl in a bunkhouse takes out a wood stove, table and a bunk.Be attentive during a bar room battle when Dean, as Tioga, takes on town boss Joe Marino (Dennis Moore); one of Marino's henchmen hits him on the left side of the head with a bottle, but you'll see him grab the right side of his head as he goes down.It looks like Roscoe's Soapy character is a goner in this one, he gets shot off his horse by one of Marino's henchies, but it turns out he's only winged in the arm. One of Soapy's better lines in the film - "Well I'll be the uncle of a prairie dog!" Dean's horse Flash is co-billed with Eddie at the start of the film, but did you know that he actually appeared with four different horses in his films? Depending on the movie, you'll see him riding either War Paint, White Cloud, Copper or Flash. Eddie didn't want any of his horses upstaging him.Fans of Dean's singing voice won't be disappointed here, he does three original tunes written for the movie. "Driftin' River" opens the film, followed later by "Way Back in Oklahoma". After saving the day in the story, Soapy suggests that maybe Eddie and Jenny ought to hitch up, but his response in song says otherwise - "Ain't No Gal Got a Brand on Me".For trivia buffs, Eddie Dean's real name was Edgar Dean Glosup.

Eddie Dean is the singing cowboy here, later in his film career; with Roscoe Ates, giving one of at least fifteen performances as Dean's sidekick, Soapy Jones. They wanna help a female rancher, who's herd is being rustled with, they learn, the input of an employee of the gal. The rustlers also kill several emissaries of - and make off with - a government payroll. The Tioga Kid fits in thusly: at the beginning of the movie, he's obviously responsible for a number of misdeeds. And, he looks just like Eddie! He becomes privy to the evildoings of the gang, and demands one-third of the haul just because of what he knows. The bad guys, however, turn on him, and he ends up helping Eddie. There are three songs in this short flick: I see Dean's "men" around during two of them; but I wonder if that's a chorus of horses at the outset? I like other Dean fare more.