By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1982 Louis L’Amour western adaptation The Shadow Riders, starring Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Katharine Ross, Ben Johnson and Dominique Dunne.
Along with Zane Grey and Larry McMurtry, the late Louis L’Amour can very safely be described as one of the truly essential authors of American western fiction. Novels like Hondo, Shalako and the multiple books of the Sackett Family Saga helped define the western on-page form and grow its success and cultural importance. Unsurprisingly, the deep, deep literary well of the highly prolific Louis L’Amour has been returned to again and again by film producers, with film titles like Kid Rodelo (1966), Shalako (1968) and Catlow (1971) just a tiny selection of the very long list of L’Amour adaptations. Exciting, richly drawn and tightly characterised, L’Amour’s books are perfect fodder for on-screen westerns.
While the western genre has fallen out of favour at different times on the big screen, it has always found a comfortable home on television, even as recently as in the emboldened form of acclaimed series like Deadwood, The English, and the mighty Yellowstone and its various spin-offs. From the very late 1970s onwards, television is where the works of Louis L’Amour have been adapted with the most vigour and frequency. It all kicked off with the popular 1979 two-part telemovie The Sacketts starring Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott, both of whom eventually established themselves as Louis L’Amour’s greatest small screen proponents.
Along with The Sacketts, Sam Elliott – an actor literally born to star in westerns – has appeared in 1987’s The Quick And The Dead and 1991’s Conagher, while Tom Selleck returned to L’Amour territory with 2001’s Crossfire Trail, directed by Aussie Simon Wincer, with whom Selleck had previously worked on the cruelly underrated 1990 Aussie western Quigley Down Under. If you’re looking to investigate the small screen Louis L’Amour canon, however, a great place to start is with 1982’s The Shadow Riders, which is based on the same-titled L’Amour novel published that same year.
At a fairly pacey 100 minutes, The Shadow Riders is an easily accessible, self-contained story with plenty of action and well-drawn western characters, and it stars aforementioned regular L’Amour gun-hands Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott, both of whom are at the top of their respective games. In short, if you don’t like this one, you can safely end your trek into L’Amour territory immediately, and guide your figurative horse into a different narrative and thematic dominion.
The Shadow Riders has a lot in its behind-the-scenes saddle-bag. No standard TV movie helmer, the director is Hollywood mainstay Andrew V. McLaglen, who had previously helmed terrific “old school” action, war and western flicks like McLintock (1963), The Devil’s Brigade (1968), Cahill US Marshall (1973), The Last Hard Men (1976), The Wild Geese (1978), North Sea Hijack (1980), The Sea Wolves (1980) and many, many more. The screenwriter, meanwhile, is Jim Byrnes, whose western pedigree extended right back to classic TV series like The Zane Grey Theatre and Gunsmoke and then into the likes of Kenny Rogers’ 1980s The Gambler series. A western mainstay, Jim Byrnes also adapted 1979’s The Sacketts, so he was an old hand when it came to Louis L’Amour.
Taking as its launching point The US Civil War – a rich source of material for many a western writer – The Shadow Riders begins just as the war is ending, with brothers Mac Traven (Tom Selleck) and Dal Traven (Sam Elliott) reunited after fighting on opposing sides. Skilled gunmen, Mac and Dal are forced back into action when a cadre of never-say-die Confederates led by Major Cooper Asbury (Geoffrey Lewis) – a battlefield compadre of Dal’s – kidnaps the Travens’ younger sisters (Dominique Dunne, Natalie May) and brother (Jeff Osterhage), along with Dal’s ex-girlfriend Kate (Katharine Ross), with the intent of selling them into slavery in Mexico. Joined by their irascible Uncle “Black Jack” Traven (Ben Johnson), Mac and Dal are soon in hot pursuit.
The plot of The Shadow Riders (which first aired on September 28, 1982 on major US network CBS) is certainly simple, but there is a lot layered into it. The horrors of The Civil War, and the manner in which it literally ripped America apart, are given full due, rather than just being thread through to make the story move. The familial nature of the story really anchors the narrative, and also raises the stakes: though there is much in the way of jocular action and rollicking set-pieces, the possible fate for the young Traven women and the feisty Kate is a very unpleasant one. That said, most of the villains of the piece are given enough shading, depth and motivation so as to feel fully rounded as opposed to just being black-hat bad guys.
The relationship between Selleck’s charming ladies’ man Mac and Elliott’s more serious man-of-action Dal is extremely well-drawn, and the long L’Amour history of the two actors gives then an obvious and immediate chemistry here. Real-life partners Elliott and Katherine Ross are also great together, engaging in terrifically snappy, romantically charged banter. Geoffrey Lewis instils his partially villainous character with a profound sense of dignity that adds to the richness of the film, while Gene Evans goes enjoyably full bad-guy as oily, pompous, duplicitous slave trader Colonel Holiday Hammond.
Jeff Osterhage (who also appeared as the younger brother of Selleck and Elliott in 1979’s The Sacketts) brings abundant energy as Jesse Traven, while any opportunity to see the charming, tragic young actress Dominique Dunne (Poltergeist, TV’s Fame series) is one to be savoured. The talented daughter of celebrity author Dominick Dunne and sister of actor/director Griffin Dunne was murdered not long after the release of The Shadow Riders by her abusive ex-boyfriend, which gives this classy TV western an added air of importance and rich sense of melancholy.
Though the hard-riding Selleck and Elliott certainly bring ample western gravitas to The Shadow Riders, the presence of scene-stealing genre legend Ben Johnson (The Wild Bunch, The Last Picture Show) takes it to the next level. The veteran character actor has an absolute ball as “Black Jack” Traven, an outlaw and frontier rascal of the first order. It’s a great piece of casting from director Andrew V. McLaglen, who also orchestrates the film’s plentiful chases, gun-fights and explosions with impressive flair, obviously benefitting from a pretty solid telemovie budget.
Crafted with expert precision and performed with full vigour by all concerned, The Shadow Riders is rippingly entertaining, and also rates as a profoundly impressive example of the high-quality nature of so many small screen westerns. From his prime position on the great prairie in the sky, the great Louis L’Amour would indeed be proud…
Availability: The Shadow Riders is available to buy or rent on YouTube in a crystal-clear, beautifully remastered presentation.
If you enjoyed this review, check out our other vintage telemovies CHiPs: Roller Disco, Dawn: Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway, Young Love, First Love, Escape From Bogen County, The Death Squad, Hit Lady, Brian’s Song, The Defiant Ones, A Cry For Help, Trilogy Of Terror, Policewoman Centerfold, Smash-Up On Interstate 5, Something Evil, Savage, A Step Out Of Line, The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission, A Very Brady Christmas, The Gladiator, Elvis, The Rat Pack, Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story, Terror Among Us, The Hanged Man, Hardcase, Charlie’s Angels: Angels In Vegas, Vanishing Point, To Heal A Nation, Fugitive Among Us, To Kill A Cop, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Police Story: A Chance To Live, Murder On Flight 502, Moon Of The Wolf, The Secret Night Caller, Cotton Candy, And The Band Played On, Gargoyles, Death Car On The Freeway, Short Walk To Daylight, Trapped, Hotline, Killdozer, The Jericho Mile, Mongo’s Back In Town and Tribes.
