PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
I've covered a lot of B-westerns over the years, but most of them are moderately well known to other metaphenomenalist viewers, even if the metaphenomenon is nothing but a spooky locale. However, I imagine I'm the only one to review DURANGO VALLEY RAIDERS, which applies to my system only because it has a villain with a masked identity.
Without repeating earlier material, I'll just saw that, while there are many stories in which masked criminals are NOT uncanny, those that are project some additional quality of terror or formidability that go beyond the ordinary. In the case of DURANGO, it's a gang-boss named The Shadow, who wears a black cloth mask over his head and organizes a band of rustlers. As is usually the case, no one in Durango Valley can do anything to stop the Shadow, until a stranger from outside, one Keene Cordner (Bob Steele), rides into town. For reasons not disclosed until the end, Cordner bears a grudge against the raiders, and in order to draw them out, he dons his own shadow-disguise to rip off the rustlers. This makes them mad enough to expose themselves, so that Cordner rounds up the owlhoots, punches out the main villain and unmasks the Shadow.
Though I've learned to spot a number of minor actors who frequented such low-budget films, I didn't know any performer except Steele, who had a non-cowpoke role in 1933's serial MYSTERY SQUADRON-- which also had a masked villain as its sole metaphenomenal element. Louise Stanley is sprightly as the slight romantic interest.
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