If you're a Western movie fan, sooner or later you'll hear about or get to see Herb Jeffries in one of his all black cast films. "Harlem Rides the Range" was the last in a trio of pictures in which Jeffries (billed as Herbert Jeffrey) portrayed a character named Bob Blake, a singing cowboy. His sidekick Dusty (Lucius Brooks) claims Blake can hit a high C with four biscuits in his mouth, and quite honestly, Jeffries' voice was pretty good as cowboy crooners go. He does a couple songs in the story, and is backed up on one of them by The Four Tones, who also appeared with him in his other pictures. Interestingly, a second group, The Four Blackbirds also take a turn in this one.
There's some decent comedic support work here by Brooks and ranch cook Slim (F.E. Miller) who banter with each other and get some screen time in a bit that's played like a haunted house scenario. If they were characters in a 'white' Western, their roles would be seen as racially stereotyped, but this was a black film made for black audiences and if there was any difference in the approach, it's not apparent to me.
The story takes place in a location called Dog Valley, with a Dog City and a Dog City Junction. The plot's about the same as you'd come across in any B oater of the day, as villain Bradley (Clarence Brooks) tries to call in the mortgage of rancher Dennison so he can get the rights to a radium mine someplace on the property. Left for dead in an opening sequence, Dennison keeps popping up every now and then from a trapdoor in his cabin to let us know he's safe and sound, while waiting for his daughter to arrive from back East. Her picture is enough to get Blake involved in the intrigue, and presumably is the inspiration for his 'prairie flower' song along the way. When she does show up, she's involved almost immediately in a gunfight along side Blake, keeping tabs on his ammunition supply. I found that all to be rather incredible given the circumstances, but I know the film makers were working on a shoestring budget and had to pull off the finale somehow.
Like an earlier Jeffries' film, "Two Gun Man From Harlem", this one contained a virtually impossible gimmick involving Blake's lassoing a gun out of the holster of a sheriff who had him locked up behind bars. In 'Two Gun', Blake lit a match with a bullet, which might have worked if played as a trick shot, but the logistics of it just didn't work in the story. Regarding both pictures, I'd recommend 'Two Gun' as the better film for it's more celebrated cast, including Mantan Moreland and Matthew 'Stymie' Beard.
For trivia fans, the name of Jeffries' horse, which wasn't mentioned in the story, was Stardusk (not a typo, it wasn't Stardust). The film I have to keep my eyes open for now is "The Bronze Buckaroo", the middle film of Jeffries' run as Bob Blake. A couple more movies were being planned for him but as things turned out, Jeffries' signed on as the lead vocalist for the Duke Ellington band around 1939/1940. The most amazing thing I've learned as I write this, is that as of my review date here, Herb Jeffries is still alive! God bless him!
There's some decent comedic support work here by Brooks and ranch cook Slim (F.E. Miller) who banter with each other and get some screen time in a bit that's played like a haunted house scenario. If they were characters in a 'white' Western, their roles would be seen as racially stereotyped, but this was a black film made for black audiences and if there was any difference in the approach, it's not apparent to me.
The story takes place in a location called Dog Valley, with a Dog City and a Dog City Junction. The plot's about the same as you'd come across in any B oater of the day, as villain Bradley (Clarence Brooks) tries to call in the mortgage of rancher Dennison so he can get the rights to a radium mine someplace on the property. Left for dead in an opening sequence, Dennison keeps popping up every now and then from a trapdoor in his cabin to let us know he's safe and sound, while waiting for his daughter to arrive from back East. Her picture is enough to get Blake involved in the intrigue, and presumably is the inspiration for his 'prairie flower' song along the way. When she does show up, she's involved almost immediately in a gunfight along side Blake, keeping tabs on his ammunition supply. I found that all to be rather incredible given the circumstances, but I know the film makers were working on a shoestring budget and had to pull off the finale somehow.
Like an earlier Jeffries' film, "Two Gun Man From Harlem", this one contained a virtually impossible gimmick involving Blake's lassoing a gun out of the holster of a sheriff who had him locked up behind bars. In 'Two Gun', Blake lit a match with a bullet, which might have worked if played as a trick shot, but the logistics of it just didn't work in the story. Regarding both pictures, I'd recommend 'Two Gun' as the better film for it's more celebrated cast, including Mantan Moreland and Matthew 'Stymie' Beard.
For trivia fans, the name of Jeffries' horse, which wasn't mentioned in the story, was Stardusk (not a typo, it wasn't Stardust). The film I have to keep my eyes open for now is "The Bronze Buckaroo", the middle film of Jeffries' run as Bob Blake. A couple more movies were being planned for him but as things turned out, Jeffries' signed on as the lead vocalist for the Duke Ellington band around 1939/1940. The most amazing thing I've learned as I write this, is that as of my review date here, Herb Jeffries is still alive! God bless him!