Author Archive: Retro

Working undercover, Marshals Nevada and Sandy are looking for jewel smugglers along the border. Posing as a nearly deaf man, Sandy gets a job as the wagon driver that picks up pottery. When he breaks a piece of pottery the jewels hidden inside are revealed.

The basic plot is the standard lawman-hero-poses-as-dead-lookalike-outlaw
in order to help dead-outlaw’s father and sister from losing their ranch to
neighboring outlaws, but lots of weird things (even more than usual in a
Sam Katzman production)happen along the way, beginning with the cast order
as shown on the film; the 4th and 5th billed Jim Corey (misspelled as
Correy) and Dick Alexander (known by and billed as such more times than he
was as Richard)play a couple of brothers as part of a family gang obviously
inspired by Ma Barker and her sons, and only have a couple of lines of
dialogue in the whole film, while Roger Williams (as Lance, the only
Holcomb brother with a given name) is billed below his two non-talking
brothers. Lafe McKee, a major character who talks all the time, goes
uncredited, as does director Bob Hill (the [...]

Cal Weston, after an absence of many years (in a remake of his 1930
Universal film “The Fighting Legion”), rides into Mesa to visit his father,
co-partner of the town bank with Jud Winters. Cal discovers the sheriff and
the coroner, Doctor Crandall in his father’s office examining his body with
Crandall rendering a verdict of suicide. Cal knows it wasn’t suicide as the
gun is in his right hand and John Weston was left handed, and he cautions
Winters, the only person in town who knows his true identity, not to reveal
it. Cal then begins his quest to find the killer and the motive, a quest
hampered when the bank’s crooked bookkeeper Martin Carter has his henchman
Burl Adams and two accomplices ambush and shoot the examiner from the
country seat, and then has a fake examiner declare that the bank has been

When Owens’ gang shoots it out in a New York nightclub, detective Breezy
Kildare is wounded. After he recovers he takes a vacation at his father’s
ranch in Wyoming. Here he meets Owens again and finds him running a
protection racket. When Breezy tries to stop him, Owens makes plans to
eliminate Breezy. Written by Maurice VanAuken

Wolf Valley is in the throes of a land-grab engineered by Barlow and
Taylor. The fight against them is led by Billy Carson, who is framed on a
murder charge which the outlaws believe will drive him out of the
territory. But instead of running, Billy surrenders and stands trial before
Judge Ryan, a square shooter. After weighing the evidence, Ryan finds Bill
not guilty but sentences Billy to jail for 30 days for disturbing the peace
because the Judge thinks that is the only way to save Billy from the
vengeance of Barlow and Taylor. But, without Billy’s leadership, the
settlers are helpless and ranches are burned, cattle rustled, the town is
shot up, the bank robbed and the mining claim owned by Billy and Fuzzy
Jones is confiscated. Ryan releases Billy who puts on a fake mustache, gets
a sombrero and poses [...]

Hanley shoots a man and then frames Bill Roberts. Being the Judge he then
holds court planning to hang Bill but Bill’s friends effect his escape.
Andy tries to lead Hanley astray by misleading him as to Bill’s location.
But Bill changes plans and Hanley catches up with him and this leads to the
showdown. Written by Maurice VanAuken

Canadian Mountie Mason is sent south of the border to look for a horse
thief with only a watch chain for evidence. He befriends young Andy and
when Calhoun hits Andy, Mason and Calhoun fight. In the scuffle Calhoun’s
watch with the missing chain is dislodged. Mason then sets out to bring in
Calhoun and his gang. Written by Maurice VanAuken

Sharpe has kidnaped an engraver and is flooding the country with
counterfeit bills. The FBI spots a town in miniature on a bill and sends in
Tim Hayes. Tim starts out by robbing Sharpe’s men of the phony bills. Then
he enters as a friend proposing to get rid of the money for Sharpe but
instead planning to bring in his men to round them up. Written by Maurice VanAuken