One of my favorite Saturday matinée heroes is Alan Rocky Lane and his horse, Blackjack. The viewer can expect to see a lot of action in any Rocky Lane move and this one is no exception. Usually the stories for the Rocky Lane westerns were well written without becoming too complicated for a juvenile audience. The story for "Salt Lake Raiders," however, tends to ramble and one suspects it was stretched out to cover an approximately one hour-time slot. The story would have been much better whittled down to about 30 minutes, which would have made for a very good TV show. The interplay between Rocky and Nugget Clark is as good as ever. I could never quite understand why Rocky and Nugget were re-introduced in each Rocky Lane movie. But this also tends to be believable in most instances. Roy Barcroft is on hand as usual as the meanest of the bad guys, a part he played so well. Blackjack does his thing as he usually does in any Rocky movie and Rocky appears in his usual undercover marshal guise. The viewer may also wonder where the title "Salt Lake Raiders" comes from since most of the movie takes place in and around a ghost town, but then most of the Saturday matinée cowboy movies have titles that have very little to do with the story, at times no more than a title to one of the songs in the movie if it is a singing cowboy picture. I highly recommend any Rocky Lane movie to those who like this type of entertainment.
Review of Salt Lake Raiders
