The Legend of the Lone Ranger

Part of the plan was to shoot a feature film with a new actor to replace the 65-year-old Clayton Moore, who had starred in the long-running and hugely successful television series for much of the 1950s.[7] Wrather had a vision for the re-telling of the story, and he felt that the profile of character would be devalued by Moore continuing to appear in costume, as he had done for many years, at county and state fairs and entertaining children in hospitals. Also, he did not want audiences to believe that the aging Moore would reprise his role as the Lone Ranger. The producers obtained a court injunction barring Moore from appearing in public with his trademark black mask. He was also permitted to sign autographs only as "The Masked Man." Moore responded by changing his costume slightly and replacing the mask with similar-looking wraparound sunglasses, and by cross-litigating against Wrather. The suit was eventually dismissed.[8]

This film was shot in New Mexico, Utah, and California. Two of the movie's four screenwriters, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, had previously created the hit TV series Charlie's Angels; they had also worked together on another hit series, Mannix. According to Larry McMurtry, novelist George MacDonald Fraser had written an excellent script for the film,[9] but he was not credited in the finished film. The movie's ballad-narration, The Man In The Mask, was performed by country music artist Merle Haggard, and composed by John Barry with lyrics written by Dean Pitchford of Footloose and Sing fame. Klinton Spilsbury's dialogue was overdubbed for the entire movie by actor James Keach.[10]

The film was released to massive negative publicity fueled by the above controversy in 1981, and grossed a mere $12 million against its $18 million budget. Other contributing factors were the lack of public interest in Westerns by the early 1980s as well as alterations to some fundamental elements of the Lone Ranger's character such as his trademark silver bullets being made into magical talismans in the movie instead of mere symbolism.[11] Lew Grade, who invested in the movie, had managed to sell it to TV for $7.5 million, and also to HBO.[12]

The film received generally mediocre reviews:[13] Time Out London said, "The mystery is how Fraker, a gifted cameraman who made a superb directing debut in Westerns with Monte Walsh, could produce such a clinker as this."[14] Meanwhile, TV Guide proclaimed, "This film is so inept it's almost camp."[15]

Lew Grade later wrote, in his autobiography Still Dancing: My Story, that he thought that the problem with the movie was that it took an hour and ten minutes before the Ranger first pulled on his mask. "The mistake was not dispensing with the legend in ten minutes and getting on with the action much earlier on," his text said.[12]

The film was nominated for, and won, several Golden Raspberry Awards:

• Won: Worst Actor (Klinton Spilsbury)[16]
• Won: Worst New Star (Klinton Spilsbury)[16]
• Won: Worst Musical Score
• Nominated: Worst Picture
• Nominated: Worst "Original" Song (The Man in the Mask)