Search - Adventures Of Champion on DVD

The adventures of a boy and his preternaturally intelligent

David Bassler | Richmond, VA USA | 07/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Adventures of Champion (1955)

Ricky North, an orphan living with his Uncle Sandy, had a knack for finding trouble and adventure in the desert Southwest of the 1880s. His best friends were Blaze, his German Shepherd, and, of course, Champion, a stallion who leads a remuda of wild horses, but always responds to Ricky's whistle in time of need. Ricky was the only human whom Champion would allow to ride him. The 12-year-old Ricky was played by Barry Curtis, a talented child actor who had, undeservedly, relatively few credits. Uncle Sandy was played by Jim Bannon, a handsome actor who earlier played Red Ryder in a series of B-westerns and looked every inch a lanky, broad-shouldered cowpoke who could lend a hand when Ricky and his preternaturally intelligent animal friends couldn't handle the bad guys by themselves.

Ten of the 26 episodes are included in this Timeless Media issuance. Unlike most of Timeless' other DVDs for 1950s television series, the prints are somewhat battered, though certainly viewable. As in other juvenile western programs created by Gene Autry's Flying A Productions, the episodes include plenty of hard-riding action with solid direction and good acting from both the principals and the rogue's gallery of character actors that fill out the cast. The episodes include in the set are:

1.01 The Saddle Tramp (co-starring Francis McDonald and Chris Alcaide)
1.02 Crossroad Trail (Stanley Andrews, Tom Irish and Lee Van Cleef)
1.03 Salted Ground (Hal K. Dawson and Tristram Coffin)
1.04 The Medicine Man Mystery (Myron Healey and Harry Harris Sr.)
1.10 Hangman's Noose (Hank Patterson and Frank Fenton)
1.13 The Stone Heart (James Best, Bill Henry and Barbara Bestar)
1.14 The Deer Hunters (Leonard Penn, Howard Negley and Glenn Strange)
1.21 Andrew and the Deadly Double (Bill Henry, Don C. Harvey and Mary Jane Saunders)
1.22 Bad Men of the Valley (Morgan Jones, Sally Fraser and Ray Bennett)
1.24 Brand of the Lawless (Ann Doran, Walter Reed and Hank Patterson)"