This review is of the DVD edition of VCI's recent release of "The Red Rider," Universal's 1934 serial featuring Buck Jones. Directed by Louis Friedlander (a.k.a. Lew Landers) this is perhaps the best of the four serials Jones made for "Old Universal" under Carl Laemmle. While giving no hint of breaking with the "formula western" tradition, and despite an inperceptible rate of plot movement these were quite popular in the 1930s, with enough entertainment in the "filler" that they still maintain interest, when watched with a day or more between chapters. Having a good print is a big help, and VCI managed to get one from Universal's archives, complete with most of the MPPDA approval headers, entertaining in themselves with the low certificate numbers; Chapter Two has number 25.The story has the sheriff of Sun Dog County, Montana, "Red" Davidson (Jones) ruin his own career to avoid hanging his buddy, "Silent" Slade (Grant Withers), falsely convicted of murder, by letting him escape. The only clue to the real murderer is a fragment of paper with "Gomez Springs, Mexico" and what appears to be the last letter of a name, "N," along with a discarded stub of a marijuana cigarette. "Red" heads for the border town of Sicomoro, helping local rancher Robert Maxwell (Charles K. French) and his daughter, Marie (Marion Shilling). He uncovers a plot involving a lost cache of smuggled diamonds, in addition to finding a prime suspect for all the trouble, Jim Breen (Walter Miller), whose ranch is south of the border. Most of Breen's dirty work is carried out by low-life Joe Portas (Richard Cramer) and his gang of outlaws. "Red" is sometimes aided by Sheriff Campbell of Sicomoro (William Desmond) but his main helper is ranch hand Johnny Snow (Edmund Cobb), who provides some comic relief that still works today. Buck Jones' films included a lot of comic touches, and this one is no exception, but it is kept in proper proportion to the story line.Since the serial was made in 1934 it is technically fairly primitive, but Universal was beginning to make use of background music in some scenes. The print, as noted, is excellent, the image quite sharp, with good gray scale and fairly low grain. A couple minor scratches are seen in the opening credits, but in the same location in each chapter, so likely in the master negative used to make all of the titles. The sound is also very good for a 1934 serial, little noise and no "noise reduction" artifacts. Distortion is low, and the dialogue is easy to understand. English subtitles are optionally available. The formatting gives a full-screen image on a standard-definition TV, which is how it should be for a DVD release. As with almost all films of this vintage, it appears "pillar boxed" on a 16 X 9 display. A couple "chapter marks" are included if not at the chapter titles as might be expected. But the menu works well and is uncomplicated."Extras" include a 7-minute Featurette on "The Red Rider" narrated by Daniel Griffith, a "Photo Gallery" with about ten posters and twice as many still images, and an episode about Buck Jones from an unaired television series, "Filming of the West" created and hosted by writer Jon Tuska. This last item runs about 30 mintues, and is preceeded by an apology for the video quality, but it contains good background information. The video abruptly stops right before an interview with Buck Jones' widow, about nine minutes before the end of the feature. This may be corrected on the upcoming Blu-Ray release, but it isn't a major issue since the rest of the feature can be seen by restarting it and skipping over the bad spot, before it gets there with the "chapter advance" of the player. This takes you to the very end of the feature so you have to quickly scan backwards, not quite as far as the problem point.In all, an excellent release from VCI, much easier to watch than the "public domain" versions which have long been the only source for viewing the serial.