Bill (Bill Cody) & his adopted son Tim (Bill Cody jr) - a boy whose
outlaw-father he shot when he still was a sheriff, but who understood his
action - pass through Silver City, once a booming place, now almost devoid
of human beings ... except for old duffer MacDuff (Budd Buster) &
siblings Joan (Ethel Jackson) & Frank Stanley (Donald Reed) &
their farmhands. But why is it so empty around here ?
An outlaw & Rustler, Wolf Larson (Wally Wales) & his gang have
brought terror to the region until everyone has left. & since Joan
& Frank have recently lost another farmhand, they are happy to hire
Bill & Tim to help them out. What nobody knows though is that
the farm's foreman John Smith is really Wolf Larson, & he just waits
for the perfect opportunity to steal the Stanleys' cattle as well ...
& this opportunity soon arises one day when Bill is out, & Wolf
& his men tie up Joan & Frank but good ... only Tim, the kid, can
escape & warn Bill.
Bill, knowing that the outlaws are superstitius folks, soon finds a way
to scare them shitless: he & the boy put on skeleton suits & masks
& pose as teh men the outlaws have killed.
& wouldn't you know it, the plan works & before long, the 2 of
them have rounded up the outlaws & presentted them to the next
sheriff. Only Wolf himself has escaped, but thanks to Tim's expertise with
a lasso, he can soon be caught & dragged back (literally) to the
others.
The premise for this film, while stupid, might sound promising,
unfortunately the direction makes little of it, our heroes in skeleton
suits & masks more often look stupid than anything else, & the
film is kept remarkably free of atmosphere. & Bill Cody jr as the
know-it-all kid who even catches the main villain at the end, doesn't help
much either.
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