Black Lash (1952)

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Not so much produced as stitched together, The Black Lash was ostensibly a sequel, with plenty of stock footage, to Frontier Revenge (1948). Duce Rago (Ray Bennett), whom Marshal (Al "Lash" LaRue) had shipped off to prison in the earlier adventure, is back but his stagecoach and train… More Not so much produced as stitched together, The Black Lash was ostensibly a sequel, with plenty of stock footage, to Frontier Revenge (1948). Duce Rago (Ray Bennett), whom Marshal (Al "Lash" LaRue) had shipped off to prison in the earlier adventure, is back but his stagecoach and train robberies leave a bit to be desired due to the stupidity of the hired help. Lawyer Bill Leonard (Byron Keith) suggests that they get some "heavy artillery," meaning good ol' Lash, who apparently was so disgusted with Rago only receiving a slap on the wrist for his previous crimes that he abandoned law enforcement for good. Naturally, our black-clad hero is working undercover with Cattlemen's Association agent Lem Woodruff (Kermit Maynard) and this time he manages to send Duce up the river for more than six months. Bennett, Sarah Padden, and Jim Bannon all repeated their roles from the earlier film; actually, the latter was apparently unavailable and a double was rather noticeably employed in all the new footage. Leading lady Peggy Stewart was also back, but her character had changed from an undercover agent in Frontier Revenge to a villainess in the return engagement. (Both Stewart and Ray Bennett visibly age from one scene to another.) Walter Greene's intrusive score is kept at a high pitch throughout even though not much is happening onscreen and the film's running time is stretched to an interminable length with seemingly endless chases on horseback, a sure sign of economy in scripting and execution. The fact that producers Ron Ormond and June Carr (Mrs. Ormond) stretched the Lash LaRue series well beyond the saturation point can only be explained by the popularity of LaRue's sidekick, Al St. John, whose Fuzzy Q. Jones character proved a perennial favorite with the small fry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi