The Driftin' Kid
Cast & Crew
Robert Tansey
Tom Keene
Betty Miles
Frank Yaconelli
Glen Strange
Stanley Price
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A gang of outlaws tries to kill horse rancher Jim Vernon, owner of Wild Horse Valley, but he and his bodyguards, Jeff Payson and Roger Lane, elude them. The gang returns to town to the office of real estate agent Rex Jenkins, who hopes to have Jim killed before the sheriff returns to town. Recently, two hundred horses Jim sold to the Mexican army for cavalry mounts were stolen, and three men were killed in the ambush. When sharpshooter Tom Sterling and his friend, Lopez Mendoza, arrive from Mexico, Payson hires Tom, who bears a striking resemblance to Jim, to pose as him. Jenkins, meanwhile, schemes to buy Wild Horse Valley while Jim is detained with the Mexican army replacing the lost herd. While Jim hides in the hills, Tom rides out on his horse alone to bait the killers. He escapes their gunfire by diving into a river, from which he is rescued by his horse. Jim's girl friend, Lane's daughter Betty, meanwhile, realizes that Tom is not Jim and confronts him, while Blackie Tompson, one of Jenkins' men, listens. Tom trails Blackie back to the gang's bunkhouse and fights him, then arrests him, along with gang member Buckhorn. Although a third killer urges Jenkins to free Blackie and Buckhorn and find out what Blackie knows, Jenkins ignores his pleas. Instead, Jenkins decides to frame Jim for his own theft, for which the penalty is hanging, by restoring the horses to Jim's valley and tipping off the sheriff. Betty, meanwhile, locates Jim and urges him to have courage like Tom. She and Jim then see his horses in Hidden Valley, which belongs to Jenkins. By the time Betty returns with Tom, however, the horses have been moved to Jim's land, and the sheriff arrests him. Tom flees with Payson and Lane, while Betty goes to fetch Jim from a roominghouse in town. Lopez overhears Blackie tell Jenkins that Jim is a fake, and Jenkins plans to abduct Betty and Jim from the roominghouse. Betty escapes, and Slim Chance, a firecracker salesman, helps Jim and Lopez fend off the gang. Betty returns with Tom, Lane and Payson, who force the gang to surrender. Later, the sheriff tells Tom that Blackie and Buckhorn confessed, and when Slim shows his wares, Lopez lights them all.
Director
Robert Tansey
Cast
Tom Keene
Betty Miles
Frank Yaconelli
Glen Strange
Stanley Price
Fred Hoose
Slim Andrews
Gene Alsace
Steve Clark
Lou Yaconelli
James Sherridan
Rusty, The Wonder Horse
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Wild Horse Valley. Modern sources add Sherry Tansey, Frank McCarroll and Wally West to the cast.
