What I watched: The twenty-fourth episode of the first season of The Lone Ranger, a kid-oriented Western created by George W. Trendle. This episode starred Clayton Moore as the titular hero and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, with guest appearances by Earl Hodgins, Stanley Andrews, Chris Drake and Steven Clark. Andrews previously appeared in The Lone Ranger as the villain in “High Heels”, while we’ve seen Clark on The Life of Riley as Babs’ prom date. This episode was directed by George Archainbaud and written by Tom Seller. “The Man with Two Faces” aired on Thursday, February 23, 1950 at 7:30 PM on ABC, and is available to watch on YouTube.
What happened: We open with a montage of a series of bank robberies, with a man called “the one-eyed bandit” who wears an eyepatch, top hat and thick beard executing the crimes. The Ranger and Tonto read about this in the paper, and note that all of the banks he’s robbed belong to the same owner, Josh Blaine (what is this, Hell or High Water?). They camp out by the next bank in line, and chase the robber when they come out. They lose him, but see the wagon of the magician Hannibal Lee (Hodgins) and ask about the runaway. We quickly find out that the magician is secretly the one-eyed bandit, using a disguise.
Bank owner Josh (Andrews) is put out by this, berating his two nephews Fred (Drake) and Bob (Clark) for allowing this to happen. The Ranger drops in on Blaine, who he apparently also helped out a few years ago. He suspects that it’s an inside job and one of the nephews is responsible, but Josh refuses to believe it. The Ranger calls the two boys in and suggests his suspicion, but doesn’t do much else.
Meanwhile, Tonto is checking out the magic caravan. He says he’s seen Indian magic, but not the white man’s. Lee impresses Tonto by making one of the Ranger’s silver bullets disappear. Hey, the writers do that all the time. He also makes himself vanish, using a fairly obvious jump-cut. After they leave, the magician’s wife worries that the Ranger is onto them, but he dismisses her concerns. However, he’s given himself away by using his arm that was allegedly wounded in the previous day’s attack.
Back at the bank, Josh is berating his nephew Bob for not knowing how to do math. Fred tells him that Bob is the inside man. He followed Bob to the magic caravan, and conveniently saw Lee trying on the beard. This is quickly conveyed to the heroic duo, who set an ambush.
However, it turns out our heroes have been tricked again, as nephew Fred is actually Lee’s accomplish and helps hold them up. They lock the good guys in the bank vault, planning for them to suffocate and for Fred to inherit the bank. See what I mean about bullets disappearing?
Lee is still going ahead with his show, hoping not to raise suspicion. However, good nephew Bob comes back to look at the books. The Ranger gets his attention by setting a fire, and Fred frees them. Our heroes are then able to confront Fred and Lee. The magician drops a smoke bomb to make himself disappear (yes!), but the Ranger sees him fleeing on his horse and catches him. Tonto shows everyone how he’s picked up some magic tricks, and the duo actually says goodbye before riding off this time.
What I thought: If you’ve read my previous Lone Ranger entries, you know that I’ve been growing frustrated with this series, as well as my dawning awareness that I still have a couple hundred repetitions of the same basic formula to go. This episode abides by the formula for the most part, with a villain who is not what he seems and a guest star who must pass a moral test. But there were a few little touches that made it genuinely enjoyable.
George Archainbaud, one of the two directors used on this series thus far, has mostly been workmanlike, but here he adds in a few touches of silent film. The opening montage efficiently establishes the threat of the one-eyed bandit without any words, and is vaguely reminiscent of early works of continuity editing like The Great Train Robbery. Lee’s vanishing trick and the obvious jump in the film that makes it possible are right out of George Melies.
A magician himself, Melies discovered that editing film could make the seemingly impossible possible. Watching from a contemporary perspective, the tricks are obvious, but to an illusionist pointing this out would just be spoiling the fun. In 1950, the silent film era would still be in memory for most adults (although perhaps not many of The Lone Ranger‘s target audience), so there’s an a certain nostalgic appeal to these techniques.
The main villain of the piece, Hannibal Lee, is also a highlight. Archainbaud unusually lets Lee come off as gentle and likable even as he’s in the middle of planning to rob a bank and suffocate our heroes. Together with the betrayal of the smart nephew, who never has an evil soliloquy or anything, it’s the rare case of a Lone Ranger episode where the villains come off as ordinary people and not pulp legends.
Plus, the episode is goofy enough to let the magician use magic in a fight! I think they should’ve gone further with this. Have him threaten to saw Tonto in half, or pull a feral rabbit out of his hat and unleash it on our heroes. These brief moments of interest highlight precisely what so many episodes of this series lack: the kind of camp value and goofiness that is typically associated with kid’s TV. Usually, it feels like no one on The Lone Ranger is remotely having fun. But if future episodes can maintain even this sprinkling of invention, maybe those next 200 episodes won’t be such a chore after all.
Coming up next: Ed Wynn, who looks a bit like a magician, returns.
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