Singing Ranger Eddie Dean (played by the same-named Eddie Dean) and his sidekick, Soapy Jones (Roscoe Ates), are sent to track down the Tioga Kid, an outlaw who happens to look just like Eddie. Soapy suggests that The Tioga Kid could be a long lost twin brother. Eddie isn’t sure because his parents were killed in an Indian ambush when he was just a baby. This seemed to be the backstory for many of Poverty Row’s favorite western heroes.
Dean plays both Eddie and the Tioga Kid. You can tell them apart because the Tioga Kid doesn’t sing and always dresses in black while Eddie dresses in white and won’t stop singing. Twin rivals were another big thing when it came to B-westerns. Thanks to then revolutionary split-screen technology, matinee audiences could enjoy the sight of their favorite heroes shooting at themselves. Eddie Dean was usually cast as a mild-mannered hero so he really seems to enjoy the chance to be bad as the Tioga Kid.
The Tioga Kid is a film that will be appreciated by those who are already fans of B-westerns. The Tioga Kid was made late in the B-western cycle and there are a lot signs that it was made in a hurry. There’s a scene involving a stunt man where he’s not even wearing the same shirt as the person he’s standing in for. Matinee audiences probably didn’t mind. They were too busy watching Eddie Dean shoot at himself and cheering him on during the movie’s big fist fight scene. Eddie Dean may not have been a great actor but he could throw a punch with the best of them.
Through the Shattered Lens 