Rob Cameron plays wagon train scout Tom Clay, who arrives in the town of Fort Osage to discover he has new employers — Arthur Pickett (Morris Ankrum) and George Keane (Douglas Kennedy).
Not only are those employers charging wagon train passengers exorbitant prices for protection on the trip from Missouri to California, they¹ve neglected to deliver promised supplies to the Osage Indians. After all, if the supplies aren’t delivered, they’ll profit.
Naturally, the Osage go on the warpath as a result. And that means Clay wants no part of guiding a wagon train into a potential ambush. One wagon of settlers has already been massacred.
But those westbound settlers are getting antsy. They’ve been stuck in Fort Osage for weeks waiting for a wagon train guide. They’re running out of patience and money and they’re blaming Pickett and Keane. Pickett convinces his pretty daughter Ann to do some convincing of her own, trying to get Clay to change his mind.
What he decides to do is try to get to the bottom of what prompted the Osage uprising. Ann might not like that answer.
Review:
The film starts off promisingly enough. Two settlers are scolded by a wife for gambling all the time; they’ve been stuck in Fort Osage so long, there’s nothing else to do, they complain. The scolding glance gets worse with a shady lady in a fancy dress walks past. Then there’s the dad who can’t afford to buy meet for his family because the demand for goods is so high in the town.
But don’t set your hopes too high. This quickly becomes routine in every imaginable way, with Cameron as another of those famed wagon scouts who can do no wrong and Ankrum and Kennedy portraying businessmen with no desire to do right, regardless of who gets hurt by their profiteering.
Well, actually Ann Pickett’s dad eventually has a change of heart, and pays dearly for it, of course. But Tom Clay’s still around to save the day.
Directed by:
Lesley Selander
Cast:
Rod Cameron … Tom Clay
Jane Nigh … Ann Pickett
Morris Ankrum … Arthur Pickett
Douglas Kennedy … George Keane
John Ridgely … Henry Travers
William Phipps … Nathan Goodspeed
I. Stanford Jolley … Sam Winfield
Dorothy Adams … Mrs. Winfield
Francis McDonald … Osage chief
Iron Eyes Cody … Osage leader
Runtime: 72 min.
Memorable lines:
Ann Pickett: “I’m sorry. I was trying to convince you to lead the wagon train.”
Tom Clay: “Fraid I can’t apologize for kissing you. I’m not a bit sorry.”
Settler 1: “This place is getting on everyone’s nerves. We’ve been here a long time.”
Settler 2: “Yep, seven weeks it’s been. What do they expect a man to do? Sit around and knit? I’ve already overhauled my wagon six times.”
){kind=link}