The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Bill Elliott plays Wild Bill Boone, grandson of famed frontiersman Daniel, who finds himself fighting for fairness in a small town near Tucson.

Seems gambler Leach Killgrain and Mayor Elwell have hatched a plan to gobble up ranches in these here parts at bargain prices.

The mayor will keep raising taxes on the property until the ranch owners can’t pay. Then Leach will step in and buy the foreclosed properties when they’re put up for auction.

Stubborn rancher’s daughter Ellen Brandon (Betty Miles) has had enough of such skullduggery. When the tax collector comes calling, she order him off Brandon land.

A struggle ensues. A gun goes off. The tax collector falls dead.

On the run, Ellen encounters Wild Bill and forces him to exchange horses with her so she can flee on a fresh mount.

When he returns to town on Ellen’s horse, he’s confronted by Leach’s men as being in league with the delinquent ranchers.

After whipping the henchmen, Wild Bill finds himself being offered the now vacant job of tax collector. He accepts, figuring it will be the perfect opportunity for he and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) to reveal what’s really going on.

Bill Elliott as Wild Bill Boone, hatching a plan to stop the scheming in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Dub Taylor as Cannonball, ready to defend buddy Wild Bill Boone in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Review:

Probably not what you’d expect based on the title. There’s not a coonskin cap in sight.

There are speeded up action scene and a couple of songs, trademarks of the B Westerns of the 1940s.

The good news is that in this case, the comic relief is genuinely humorous as Boone’s sidekick Cannonball tries to fend off the advances of a guitar-toting blonde named Matilda.

She has matrimony in mind. He wants no parts of that, and gets mightily confused when he meets Melinda, Matilda’s twin sister.

Those parts were played by the real-life Rodik Twins, who released four songs via Decca Records in the early 1940s. This marked their only film.

It also marked one of the first films for lady rodeo champ Betty Miles, who appeared in about a dozen films, then performed as a horse rider in various circuses, according to IMDb.

Betty Miles as Ellen Brandon, trying to chase tax collectors off her dad’s land in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Bill Elliott as Wild Bill Boone, pretending to give Jeb Brandon (Carl Stocksdale) a rough time in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Directed by:
Lambert Hillyer

Cast:
Bill Elliott … Wild Bill Boone
Betty Miles … Ellen Brandon
Dub Taylor … Cannonball
Ray Bennett … Leach Killgrain
Walter Soderling … Mayor Elwell
Carl Stockdale … Jeb Brandon
Bud Osborne … Red
Francis Walker … Bowers
Lee Powell … Fuller
Tom Carter … Wagner
Edmund Cobb …. Henderson
Verda Rodik … Melinda
Verna Rodik … Matilda

Runtime: 61 min.

Ray Bennett as Leach Killgrain, the man behind the land-grabbing scheme in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Walter Soderling as Mayor Elwell, raising taxes to a point where he knows ranchers won’t be able to pay in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Memorable lines:

Wild Bill Boone, when Cannonball warns of the danger he’s facing from gunmen out to get even with him: “Out to get and gettin’ are two different things.”

Mr. Brandon to daughter Ellen: “You’ve been a great help to me, honey, while I’ve been sick. You’ve done a man’s work. But you still have a young head on your shoulders. Every acre of land and every dollar in the whole valley is not worth the life of one decent man.”

Ellen Brandon: “I’m not in a joking mood. I’m taking your horse.”
Wild Bill Boone: “If you’ll pardon me for saying so, miss, you’re a mite too pretty to be a convincing horse thief.”

Verda Rodik as Melinda, thrilled to have gotten a goodbye kiss from Cannonball in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Verna Rodik as Matilda, confessing to her fascination with men in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Wild Bill Boone, having been offered the job of tax collector: “The work must be pretty dangerous to pay that high.”
Leach Killgrain: “At those prices, you can afford to take out life insurance.”
Wild Bill, touching his holstered six-guns: “I got two policies I always carry with me.”

Cannonball: “Sounds like out of the frying pan and into the kitchen for me.”

Matilda: “Don’t you believe in love at first sight.”
Cannonball: “I don’t know, woman. I never looked a second time.”

Matilda: “Imagine being locked up with you? That would be heaven.”
Cannonball: “That ain’t what I heard heaven was like.”

Dub Taylor as Cannonball and Bill Elliott as Wild Bill Boone, discussing a plan to nab the land grabbers in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Dub Taylor as Cannonball, trying to distract Melinda (Verda Rodik) with a story about her brother in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

The Rodik Twins as Melinda and Matilda, serenade Cannonball in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)

Betty Miles as Ellen Brandon and Bill Elliott as Wild Bill Boone, finally working together in The Return of Daniel Boone (1941)