Author Archive: Retro

“Tennessee” Matthews is a trader dealing in buffalo hides at his post situated on the North Platte River at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. There Jed Hawkins and his daughter Virginia are waiting for an escort for their wagon trail headed for California. “Widow” Melindy Spriggs is also with the train and has intentions of trapping Hawkins as her next husband, although his disposition to drink is very trying to her ‘dry’ ways. “Squaw” O’Hara, called such because he has a habit of taking up with Indian women (which may well be very politically incorrect now, but writer F. McGrew Willis did not name his villain such with an eye on the PC world of the future, and revisionist film history will not intrude here) is hired as the train’s scout. O’Hara is one bad character indeed and his real vocation is misguiding wagon trains into traps so they can be looted. At the present time, O’Hara [...]

Sunset Carson, ace driver for the Harding Stagecoach Line, persuades his boss Frank Harding (Edmund Cobb) to hire his brother, Jeff (Bob Steele), recently released from the penitentiary. Sunset isn’t aware that Jeff owes his release to Marc Redmond (Tristram Coffin), owner of the rival line, and that Redmond is forcing Jeff to give him advance information when the Harding stages are carrying valuable shipments, so that his henchmen can rob the stage and force Harding out of business.

Made during the period when Clayton Moore had been replaced on the Lone Ranger television series by John Hart, but actually appears to have been made during the dawn of the sound era because of the excessive amounts of stock footage culled from earlier westerns made by producer Edward Finney, who never let much film from his productions be used only once, which accounts for some Monogram stock with Tex Ritter and Tris Coffin. Story concerns the efforts of Buffalo Bill to protect the Indian’s land from a gang who want to get the gold buried there. The outlaws disguise themselves as Indians and raid and plunder the settlers in order to blame the tribe.

Hap Connors, not Conners(Ken Maynard)is an escaped convict looking for the man who framed him into a prison sentence.He runs into a prison companion, known as “Old” Frisco(Lafe McKee)who broke out a few days earlier than Hap. They hear some shots, reckon it is only some deer hunters, but it is a stage holdup engineered by Jim Blount(Frank Mayo) and staged by his chief henchmen “Bull” Legal(Charles King.)A worried Blount has heard about Hap’s escape and tells Legal and his other henchmen that he will double the state’s reward offer to the man who brings Hap to him—dead. Hap picks up a pair of slippers on the trail and at the next ranch meets the girl to whom they belong; Ruth Warren(Frances Dade),the ranch owner who gives him a job.At a town dance, Hap meets Ruth again and she tells him she is to be married the next day to Blount. Blount confronts Hap, calls [...]

Posing as a cattle buyer, Hoppy crosses over into Oklahoma where the Jordan brother’s and their outlaw gang operate outside the law. After receiving an unfriendly reception when he finds them, he, California, and Johnny rustle their cattle and drive across the river into Texas. He hopes they will cross over to retrieve their cattle and then he can arrest them.

“Hopalong” Cassidy, “Lucky” Jenkins and “Speedy” are driving a herd of Bar-20 mustangs to Bluesky, to be delivered to Jeff Chapman, operator of a stagecoach line. They come upon a stagecoach, which has just been looted of silver bullion by “Smiley” and his singing outlaws. The Bar-20 men give first aid to Jeff, who was shot during the robbery, and “Lucky” drives the stagecoach to town. There, “Lucky” is hard smitten by Jeff’s daughter, Shirley, but she is in love with Neal Holt, who also has designs on her father’s mail-carrying contract. Holt’s foreman, “Twister” Maxwell, secretly works with “Smiley” and his gang, tipping them off on gold and silver shipments. Hold and Cassidy get into an argument over the merits of the Bar-20 mustangs versus Holt’s pure-bred Morgans and the end result is a match race, with the stage contract as the stake.

Howell breaks up a train robbery only to find that it’s a fake. However the money is missing and he is blamed. He escapes and sets out to find the real thieves. He must also avoid being caught visiting the Collins ranch to see Doris.

A Professor has an invention that will bring down planes causing them to crash and Dawson is forcing him to use it on those carrying money. When Tim arrives to investigate he is mistaken for a noted outlaw. So he assumes that identity to force Dawson to make him a partner. But just as a plane bringing Tim help is arriving, his true identity is revealed and while he is a prisoner, Dawson forces the Professor to start his machine.