Colorado Pioneers
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
R. G. Springsteen
Wild Bill Elliott
Bobby Blake
Alice Fleming
Roy Barcroft
Bud Geary
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1899, ranch foreman Red Ryder and his Indian ward, Little Beaver, travel from their home in Blue Springs, Colorado, to Chicago to speak to Ramsey, the representative of a meat packing company. While they are negotiating the price for Red's cattle, two young boys, Joe and Skinny, create a distraction with a stolen wagon, and their adult cohort, Bull Reagan, robs Ramsey. Red follows the boys, who were tricked by Bull into participating, and after a fistfight, turns Bull over to the police. Later, a juvenile court judge listens as Father Marion pleads that the boys, who live in the parish home, are not really bad, just in need of better facilities to keep them off the streets. Red, who has attended the hearing, states that his aunt, Martha "The Duchess" Wentworth, has a large ranch on which the boys could receive fresh air, hard work, discipline and affection if they were sent there for the summer. The judge agrees and Little Beaver waits with the boys while the paperwork is processed. Red returns home, where he learns that a fire has destroyed much of the Duchess' grazing land. One of her neighbors, rancher Dave Wyatt, offers to cover the Duchess' credit at the general store, but she asserts that all will be well once her cattle are shipped. A few days later, Little Beaver arrives, and much to Red's surprise, he brings with him all of the parish boys, not just Joe and Skinny. The Duchess is delighted, and the boys quickly settle into life at the ranch. Only Joe hates the ranch, believing that Red wants to turn him into a "softy." Joe refuses to participate in any activities until one afternoon, Red finds an orphaned colt, and the little animal wins Joe's heart. Red also has found evidence that the fire was arson, although he is baffled about who set it and why. He becomes suspicious of Wyatt when the rancher hires away all of the Duchess' ranch hands, leaving her in jeopardy of not being able to ship her cattle. Red scours the countryside for more hands, but can find only old cowpoke Sand Snipe. While Red is gone, however, Little Beaver teaches the boys how to round up the cattle, and when Red returns, all the cattle are in the canyon waiting for the drive. Still resistant, Joe is about to run away when the colt becomes sick. The illness is not serious, but Joe is persuaded to go with the other boys on the cattle drive and nurse the colt back to health. When the boys are assembled at the campsite soon after, Wyatt and his foreman, Bill Slade, set off an explosion in the cliff face above the camp. Fortunately, only one boy is injured, but the townspeople speak out against Red hiring children to do a man's job. The dissension is temporarily quelled by the excitement over the town's annual buckboard race, but Joe cannot enjoy the proceedings, for Bull, who escaped from custody, has found him and orders him to steal Red's prize money if he is the winner. When Joe attempts to tell Red, he sees Red apparently tampering with Slade's wagon, and after Red wins, Joe assumes that he cheated and, disillusioned, agrees to leave with Bull. That night, Red catches Slade at the ranch house, and Slade confesses that Wyatt instigated the fire and landslide in the hope that the Duchess would be forced to sell her valuable ranch to him. Just then, the sheriff brings in Joe and Bull, who had stolen Red's prize money without Joe's knowledge. Joe learns that Red won the race honestly and Bull is taken away. Later, the boys are about to return to Chicago when Red promises that they can come back during their next summer vacation. As Joe bids farewell to the colt, Red assures him that a horse never forgets its owner, and Joe confesses that he has become a "softy."
Director
R. G. Springsteen
Cast
Wild Bill Elliott
Bobby Blake
Alice Fleming
Roy Barcroft
Bud Geary
Billy Cummings
Freddie Chapman
Frank Jaquet
Tom London
Monte Hale
Buckwheat Thomas
George Chesebro
Emmett Vogan
Tom Chatterton
Edward Cassidy
Jack Rockwell
Fred Graham
Howard Mitchell
Gary Armstrong
Bobby Anderson
Roger Williams
Richard Lyden
Robert Goldschmidt
Romey Foley
Jack Kirk
Crew
Thomas A. Carman
Richard Cherwin
Charles Craft
Earl Crain Jr.
Frank Hotaling
Lee Lukather
Howard Lydecker
Theodore Lydecker
Bob Mark
Enzo Martinelli
Sidney Picker
Gordon C. Schaefer
Otto Siegel
Earle Snell
Bud Thackery
Peter Whitehead
Howard Wilson
Al Wood
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Modern sources include Horace B. Carpenter, Bill Wolfe, George Morrell, Cliff Parkinson and Jess Cavan in the cast. For more information on the "Red Ryder" series, please consult the Series Index and see the entry below for Tucson Raiders.
