The Purple Vigilantes [SEP] cast member
The Purple Vigilantes
The Purple Vigilantes is a 1938 American Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan, and Max Terhune. Written by Betty Burbridge and Oliver Drake, the film is about a rancher who organizes other ranchers to form a vigilante group in order to rid their town of outlaws. After the outlaws are defeated, some of the men, posing as the vigilant group, go on a crime spree. "The Purple Vigilantes" is the 12th entry in the "Three Mesquiteers" series
of B-movies produced by Republic Pictures. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Purple Riders because at that time the word "vigilante" was unknown in Britain.
John Denvir, in his book, "Legal Reelism: Movies as Legal Texts", compared the hooded-and-robed vigilantes in the film to the Ku Klux Klan. He cited "The Purple Vigilantes" as being "the series western most clearly inspired by the Klan", noting that the film was "treating its hooded terrorist