Bad Men of the Border

Cattlemen's Protective Association agent Tom Wade and his partner Happy are assigned to look into the disappearance of rancher John Carroll, who has been abducted by Carson, who wants to use his out-of-the-way ranch as a base for his smuggling operations. Complications arise as Carrol's daughter, Rita, looking for him, has an unfriendly run-in with Wade, then later is herself kidnapped by Carson.

Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train. Knowing the outlaw and his gang are coming to kill him, Kane is determined to stand his ground, so he attempts to gather a posse from among the local townspeople.

Dan Ballard, a respected citizen in the western town of Silver Lode, has his wedding interrupted by four men led by Ned McCarty, an old acquaintance who, as a US Marshal, arrests Ballard for the murder of his brother and the theft of $20,000. Ballard seeks to stall McCarty while tracking down evidence that will prove his innocence.

Around the film hang fascinating questions about border politics, which I’ll touch on in an introduction before the screening. One of Eugene Buck’s motivations for making the film may have been his rough cross-examination during his kidnappers’ first trials, in October 1913, when defense attorneys cast him as a confused and unreliable witness against idealistic freedom fighters. On film he could reproduce the pursuit, the shootouts, his kidnapping, and his friend’s murder just as he had testified. Reenacting the crime on film may have been the best revenge—and a way to honor the sacrifice of Deputy Ortiz, a twenty-year police veteran and, for the era, a rare Mexican American lawman.

Rex Allen against diamond smugglers down Laredo way

Sandy Doyle, gambler and political chief of a small border town, seeks to gain control of the Bar-X Ranch, owned by Rufe Rickson, to further some undercover activities of his own. He counts on Rickson's inability to stay away from gambling as the means to his ultimate success. Government investigator Oliver Shea and his assistant, Dan Haggerty, start a fight in Doyle's place when they see Rickson being cheated and are invited to the Bar-X where Oliver and Helen Rickson, Rufe's daughter, discover interest in each other and Dan finds himself pursued by Bell, the ranch cook. Sheriff Larson brings the prize money for the $5,000 race of the Rodeo Association, and that night it is stolen.

The first of a long-running series of Monogram-produced westerns starring Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton that replaced the Rough Riders series following the death of Buck Jones in the Boston night club fire. Though the next three years featured Brown (as Nevada Jack McKenzie) and Hatton (in his Sandy Hopkins role from the Rough Riders series) as undercover marshals in some form or another, this initial entry had Brown as a lone rider seeking vengeance and he and Hatton's characters were unknown to each other through most of the film. Hopkins offer McKenzie a marshal's job at the end of the film, which the Brown character declined and rode off alone on his quest. This quest didn't take long as by the next film in the series Nevada Jack McKenzie was a full-fledged U. S. Marshal.

Tom Evans (Jon Dawson), nephew of U.S. Marshal Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton), has just trailed his cattle to Yucca City, where he intends to sell to Ben Crowley (Harry Woods), owner of practically everything in town.Tom loses his money in a crooked game ran by Crowley. "Nevada Jack" McKenzie (Johnny Mack Brown), a U.S. Marshal working undercover, watches the game and secures one of the "fixed" decks of cards. Later, Tom discovers Crowley's men rustling his cattle and is shot. Nevada finds him severely wounded and hides him with Jeff Lewis (Sam Flint) and his daughter Mary (Ellen Hall). Sandy, posing as a dentist, arrives in town after a wire from Nevada. The latter confronts Crowley with the crooked deck and also with the fact that Tom is still alive, and demands a partnership from Crowley. When Crowley learns that Lewis is hiding Tom, he decides to have both Tom and Nevada killed.

Mountie Matt O'Brien is assigned to escort Miss Owens to a remote outpost. But when he finds an illegal mining operation there that is smuggling gold across the border, his superior Sgt. Means orders him to leave.

After a band of drunken thugs overruns a small Indian Nation town, killing Reverend Goodnight and raping the women folk, Eula Goodnight enlists the aid of US Marshal Cogburn to hunt them down and bring her father's killers to justice.

Carl Beldon has disappeared and the Trail Blazers have been sent to investigate. Arriving in town, they find that 'Honest John' controls everything. He even prints his own money. He also has a gang and they set out to finish off the heroes.