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Luke Avery (Fred Gilman) is accused of robbing a stage coach, and circumstantial evidence speaks against him, from a scarf used by a robber found on his land to some of the loot seemingly dropped on his porch. The audience of course knows that it was Bill Clary (Jack Rutherford) who planted all the evidence because he has the hots for Luke's sister Ruth (Sheila Bromley) and thus wants him out of the way, but the local Sheriff (Al Bridge) and Deputy (Skeeter Bill Robbins) are still quick to arrest Avery and pretty much promise to hang him - much to Ruth's distress, naturally. Enter Dan Alton (Hoot Gibson), con-man by trade who presently poses as an attorney to sell law books. Ruth begs him to take on the case of her brother, and even though he might be a con-man, he also has a big heart and ultimately agrees. And it's not long before he figures there's somethig fishy about Clary, so he searches his place - thing is, Sheriff and Deputy have figured the same thing, so they also come to search his place with a posse, and Alton has to flee, the posse behind him, and ultimately nobody can actually search Clary's place. Ruth tries to convince Clary to not be a witness at her brother's trial, but Clary insists for him to do so she has to skip town with him, which she agrees to, finding the situation hopeless. In the meantime, Alton steals the robber's scarf from the Sheriff's evidence box and holds up the stage coach bringing in the Judge (William Humphrey) and the State's Attorney (Gordon De Main) before returning the scarf again, so the next day at the trial both Judge and State's Attorney recognize the scarf, which pretty much forces to jury to release Avery on reasonable doubt. Then though, the Judge recognizes Alton as the robber from one of his catchphrases, and he suddenly finds himself on the run, but then runs into Clary who has decided to serve as witness after all, and beats him to a standstill until the Sheriff and his posse arrive to find the money on Clary.

Ok, so this film's understanding of the law and lawyering is questionable, to put it politely, but after all it's a western first and a courtroom drama only second, and as a western it's a lively affair - sure, not completely without leaps of reason and the like, but then again Hoot Gibson as usual delivers a fine, self-ironic performance, surrounded by many B-western regulars, and if you're at all into low budget cowboy movies from the early sound era, you'll certainly find yourself entertained here.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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