Bart (Lyle Talbot), your typical respectable citizen, and his
henchmen have just shot the Sherrif, and now they are looking for a
scapegoat, so they just pick the first stranger who crosses their way and
pin the murder on him, and that first stranger is the Tucson Kid (Tom
Keene), really an undercover gouvernment agent. Soon enough, the Deputy
(Tom Tyler) joins Bart and company, and he is easily convinced in hanging
the Kid right here on the spot, but Zeke (Harvey B.Dunne), your typical
old duffer, frees the Kid at gunpoint at virtually the last second, just
because he doesn't trust Bart and his men.
The Deputy is impressed by Zeke's trust in the Kid and decides to check
the Kid's alibi - while Bart and his henchmen kill Zeke and pin the murder
on the Kid, so to make sure he doesn't escape another necktie party. But
suddenly, the Deputy is in no hurry anymore to hang the Kid, and when the
Kid presents some (circumstantial) evidence against Bart, the tables are
turned on the respected citizen and his men. This all leads to a
shoot-out during which the Kid (naturally) saves the Deputy's life, and
all the baddies are killed in the end. And only then does the Kid reveal
his true identity.
Crossroad Avenger: The Adventures of the Tucson Kid was a
proposed pilot for a TV-series that never came into being - and comparing
the show with other Western TV-series (then a very trendy genre), it's
hard to say why not: Crossroad Avenger is about as well-made as any
series out there, it has a decent script, decent actors, decent production
values, and the direction, while little more than functional, is decent as
well. Plus, the show completely lacks your typical Ed Wood-touch: There
are no transvestites, no effeminate or other-worldly actors, no angora
sweaters, no weirdly repetitive dialogues, no typical shortcuts in
production, no scenes that ought to have been reshot, no nothing actually,
and the whole thing's in colour too - which is good news if you are a fan
of 1950's TV-Western entertainment, but bad news if you're an Ed Wood fan
who loves his films for his shortcomings.
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