Bill Elliott is Bill Stockton, who heads to California with buddy Sam Bowie (Andy Devine) to run a gold mine with his brother. But he arrives to find his brother dead and Mexican miners under siege by outlaws. Vowing vengeance, he starts searching for the responsible party.
There are plenty of suspects, including dashing Johnny Morrell (John Carroll), successful businessman Luis Savarin (Joseph Schildkraut) and a marshal named Luckner (Grant Withers), who Stockton thinks might be crooked.
There’s one other potential person behind the thievery, pretty Marie Marlowe (Catherne McLeod), and entertainer at Savarin’s business. Stockton is falling for her, but she prefers Savarin, not because she loves him, but because she loves the life he can buy her.
Review:
So-so Elliott vehicle features lots of songs in the first half, courtesy of leading ladies Catherine McLeod and Estelita Rodriguez, and lots of action in the second half.
Rodriguez plays the daughter of Senora Del Rey, one of the leading Mexican families in Los Angeles. She’s forbidden from having anything to do with Johnny Morrell, and seems to love him even more as a result.
Savarin is behind all the evil doing. He’s trying to buy up enough land to start his own personal empire. But he does it all behind the scenes, letting Luckner orchestrate the dirty deeds.
Rodriguez would later have a role in one of the campiest Westerns of all time, “Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter.”
Directed by:
Joseph Kane
Cast:
William Elliott … Bill Stockton
John Carroll … Johnny Morrell
Catherine McLeod … Marie Marlowe
Joseph Schildkraut … Luis Savarin
Andy Devine … Sam Bowie
Estelita Rodriguez … Estelita Del Rey
Virginia Brissac … Senora Del Rey
Grant Withers … Marshal Ed Luckner
Roy Barcroft … Clyborne
Henry Brandon … Larry Stockton
Julian Rivero … Diego
Earle Hodgins … Horatius P. Gassoway
Augie Gomez … Miquel
Runtime: 88 min.
Memorable lines:
Bill Stockton: “Let’s get unsaddled. You’ve gotta to work some of that fat off of you.”
Sam Bowie: “Bill, don’t call me that. I ain’t exactly fat. Just kind of, sorta comfortable like.”
Bystander to Marshal Ed Luckner, after he’s taken a bullet: “Are you hurt bad?”
Luckner: “Did you ever hear of anybody being hurt good.”
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