Ken Masters (Ken Maynard) confronts Silas Stone (William Gould), the man who threw his father into jail where he eventually died, and the confrontation eventually gets physical and ends with Silas being killed - but not by Masters but by his own son Hank (Harold Goodwin). Hank of course frames Masters, and he, realizing he can't hope for a fair trial, hightails it to the South American jungles. He's traced down there though by ranger Dick Evans (Walter Miller) and gives himself up - and while trying to make it back to civilisation, the two men become close friends. But Evans soon suffers from jungle fever and is on the verge of losing his mind, which leads to him being badly injured in an alligator attack. Masters nurses him back to health, but realizes the only way to get him up and running again is to amputate his leg - and Evans shoots himself dead rather than letting this happen ...

Masters returns to his old hometown posing as Evans, and it works like a charm, everybody recognizes him as Evans on sight - and yes, this takes a lot of suspension of disbelief. Only Evans' fiancée isn't fooled by Masters, as his behaviour is all wrong, so he confides into her - and she seems to be totally ok with Evans dead and her now helping Masters. Thing is, this evening she goes on a dance with, of all people, Hank. And when Hank stumbles into Masters, he's one of the very few who suspects Masters to actually be Masters. Meanwhile, Cinders (Martin Turner), servant at the house of Alice's father, the captain of the rangers (Jack Rockwell) has seen Masters' presumed dead dad in the window of a dilapitated house by the graveyard, and when he reports this to Masters, Masters investigates and soon finds the house to be a hideout for Hank's henchmen with a mine system underneath. And of course, Masters finds his father, still alive, but by now Hank has grown wise to him, and sent his henchmen after him, but if it wasn't Masters if he didn't defeat them single-handedly. Hank takes Alice captive when trying to make a run for it, but of course it all ends well, and of course Masters gets the girl at the end.

It's probably best to not try to follow the plot too closely when watching this one, as there are several plotholes and (as mentioned above) disbelief is at times suspended beyond breaking point. But if you take it merely as an escapist adventure yarn, this film has much to offer, from jungle action, complete with alligators, to spooky houses by the graveyard with underground passageways and the like - in other words, a film with enough (figurative) colour - with darker spots thrown in just for good measure - and action to entertain one throughout.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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