By Lee Pfeiffer
The latest attempt to revive The Lone Ranger as a big screen tent pole franchise may be a financial bomb for Disney, but at least the studio is not alone in its misery. Flashback to 1980 when Universal attempted the same feat by launching The Legend of the Lone Ranger, a big budget (for the time) Western that almost eclipsed Heaven's Gate as the much-hyped box-office dud of the period. Even way back then, the idea that the Lone Ranger could be revived as anything other than a comedic film franchise seemed doubtful to many. The Western had evolved since the legendary hero had become a TV sensation beginning in 1949 with Clayton Moore playing the title role and Jay Silverheels portraying his loyal sidekick Tonto. Since then, audiences became weened on Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, the Sergio Leone "Man With No Name" trilogy and even old Duke Wayne churning out far grittier Westerns in his later years than many would have ever imagined possible. The notion of a man in a white hat hiding behind a skimpy mask seemed too hokey for words. Nevertheless, some major talent was involved in the Universal project, but it went awry from the start, beginning with the casting of Klinton Spilsbury, an unknown actor, in the title role. Studios had plucked actors from obscurity with successful results before. Christopher Reeve became a major star as Superman and George Lazenby's brief, one picture tenure as James Bond was not due to audience rejection, but his own decision to quit the series. Thus, there was some reason to believe lightning could strike again. It did- but it landed directly in the Universal board room. Spilsbury fit the bill physically with dynamic good looks...but his inexperience made for major problems behind the scenes for director William A. Fraker. Additionally, the producers undermined his performance by having actor James Keach dub most of his dialogue. Then there was a near-fatal accident involving a legendary stuntman, the bizarre decision to take legal action to prevent aging Clayton Moore from wearing his original Lone Ranger mask at autograph shows (which resulted in a public backlash) and even the assassination attempt on newly-elected President Ronald Reagan would contribute to the film's disastrous reception at the boxoffice. The downside of all this is that each time a Western performs poorly, studios shirk from making any more for long periods of time, thus hexing the only uniquely American cinematic art form. For a full report on the story behind The Legend of the Lone Ranger, click here to read a terrific article by writer Jeff Labrecque of Entertainment Weekly.