Mayor Plummer (George Macready) and businessman Hal Stiles (Wallace Ford) are plotting to get the Warren mine. After all, the vein of precious metal running to Plummer’s land originates there, so an old law gives the Warrens right to the riches.
When Pliny Warren won’t sell, they have him shot by the sheriff during a card game and plant a phony $52,000 tax bill on the body. When Tab Warren interrupts the proceedings and shoots the sheriff in self-defense, they have him sought on a murder charge.
The wounded Tab flees to the Warren mine, which is like a fortress. And with two other brothers and a sister (Kristine Miller as Fay) to defend it, ousting the clan won’t be easy, tax claim or not. So Plummer and Stiles send for a paid killer named “Shotgun” Kelly to help them out.
When a shotgun-toting cowboy (Skip Homeier) arrives, they just assume it’s their gunman. But the cowboy soon detects a stink in Tombstone, and isn’t bashful about helping set things straight, especially since Fay Warren is such a pretty young thing.
Review:
There isn’t a whole lot of thunder (action) in this rather uninspired low-budget Western. There isn’t much of a spark either, though it’s directed by Western veteran Joseph Kane.
But the film offers John Doucette and Jack Elam a chance to play villains again, albeit villains wearing badges on this occasion. It offers Skip Homeier one of his few chances to play a lead in a Western.
He allows himself to be mistaken for a hired killer for some reason. Perhaps it’s the $500 Plummer and Stiles offer him. But he quickly switches side, all the while hoping the town leaders don’t learn that he really isn’t Shotgun Kelly; he just happens to be carrying the dead man’s gun.
Kristine Miller starred in a number of other 1950s Westerns, including High Lonesome (1950), The Persuader (1957) and Domino Kid (1957).
Directed by:
Joseph Kane
Cast:
Skip Homeier … Tim Mallory
Kristine Miller … Fay Warren
George Macready … Mayor Plummer
Wallace Ford … Hal Stiles
Nacho Galindo … Pancho Gutierrez
Gregory Walcott … Mark Warren
Jack Elam … Deputy Callahan
George Keymas … “Shotgun” Kelly
John Doucette … Deputy Rand
John Compton … Tab Warren
Robert Swan … Jud Warren
Francis McDonald … Pliny Warren
Runtime: 72 min.
Memorable lines:
Mayor Plummer: “One thing I learned early in life, whatever happens to you, good or bad, use it.”
Mayor Plummer to Stiles: “I knew you’d get the idea, especially if I told you.”
Stiles to Plummer: “They tell me idiots are the happiest people in the world. You’ve just proven it to me.”
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