The Purple Vigilantes (1938)

Directed by

George Sherman

Genre

Western film

Country

United States

Runtime

58 min

Rated

PG

Rating

4.7 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A rancher gets other ranchers to form a vigilante group to drive outlaws out of town. After the outlaws are gone, some of the men keep wearing the vigilante disguises and go on a crime spree.

pulpylightheartedformulaicfast-pacedunintentionally unsettlingdatedaction-packed

What happens

The Purple Vigilantes is a 1938 American Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan, and Max Terhune. Written by Betty Burbridge and Oliver Drake, the film is about a rancher who organizes other ranchers to form a vigilante group in order to rid their town of outlaws. After the outlaws are defeated, some of the men, posing as the vigilant group, go on a crime spree. The Purple Vigilantes is the 12th entry in the Three Mesquiteers series of B-movies produced by Republic Pictures. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Purple Riders because at that time the word "vigilante" was unknown in Britain. John Denvir, in his book, Legal Reelism: Movies as Legal Texts, compared the hooded-and-robed vigilantes in the film to the Ku Klux Klan. He cited The Purple Vigilantes as being "the series western most clearly inspired by the Klan", noting that the film was "treating its hooded terrorist organization as originally serving a legitimate purpose but corrupted over time." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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