After many years of bit roles Bill Elliott was given the lead in this serial with Wild Bill Hickok as the protagonist/hero. The Great Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickok not only gave Elliott a career, but a name for the billing marquee. Henceforth he would be always known and billed as Wild Bill Elliott.
Though even today some folks have a taste for these old time serials,I'm not one of them. Nevertheless this serial established Elliott as a cowboy hero for the juvenile trade. Later on Elliott did some more adult oriented westerns that weren't half bad.
Elliott as Hickok is appointed United States Marshal in Abilene, Kansas and at the same time Texas cattle herds are attempting to drive up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene and the projected railroad head. There'a gang called the Phantom Raiders who are a bunch of carpetbaggers running Texas who want to keep the cattle there so the owners can sell at the carpetbagger prices. When they start to move the Phantom Raiders stop at nothing to keep that first big herd from making the drive.
Which includes disguising themselves as Indians, stirring up real Indians, trying both to sabotage the railroad coming west and the cattle drive coming north. All in all they keep Elliott in the saddle continually for 15 chapters.
As serials go this is not bad, but these things with the ever present cliffhangers can eventually prove wearying.
Though even today some folks have a taste for these old time serials,I'm not one of them. Nevertheless this serial established Elliott as a cowboy hero for the juvenile trade. Later on Elliott did some more adult oriented westerns that weren't half bad.
Elliott as Hickok is appointed United States Marshal in Abilene, Kansas and at the same time Texas cattle herds are attempting to drive up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene and the projected railroad head. There'a gang called the Phantom Raiders who are a bunch of carpetbaggers running Texas who want to keep the cattle there so the owners can sell at the carpetbagger prices. When they start to move the Phantom Raiders stop at nothing to keep that first big herd from making the drive.
Which includes disguising themselves as Indians, stirring up real Indians, trying both to sabotage the railroad coming west and the cattle drive coming north. All in all they keep Elliott in the saddle continually for 15 chapters.
As serials go this is not bad, but these things with the ever present cliffhangers can eventually prove wearying.