Frontier Agent
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Lambert Hillyer
Johnny Mack Brown
Raymond Hatton
Reno Blair
Kenneth Macdonald
Dennis Moore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Rancher Jim Kerrigan persuades the Overland Telegraph Company to allow his own men to extend the line through his property and guarantees to pay for the work himself if it is not finished on time. As land promoter Wheelock stands to lose a lot of money if the line goes through, he hires Larry Foster, who is engaged to Kerrigan's daughter Sandra, to sabotage the work. Later, Overland's boss, Carson, tells his trouble shooter, Johnny Mack Brown, that Kerrigan has been shot and that although Kerrigan's foreman, Cappy, is now running the operation, he fears that they may not finish on time. Johnny arrives in time to rescue Cappy and Kerrigan ranchhand Joe Farr from masked raiders, and also intervenes when Foster attempts to shoot Joe, who is interested in Sandra. Two line installers are then shot, and Johnny manages to catch one of the killers, Mugsy. Before they can get Mugsy to reveal who is behind the sabotage, he is shot by Foster during an arranged "escape." Two members of the gang have a shootout with Johnny and Cappy, and one of them, Straker, is jailed. Slim, another of Foster's men, steals Johnny's identification card and plants it on the scene when Foster and Wheelock's men break Straker out and kill a deputy. The marshal tries to arrest Johnny but Joe intervenes. To prove Johnny's innocence, he and Joe keep a lookout on Foster's ranch and discover that he is in cahoots with the gang. When Foster and the others try to set fire to the Kerrigan ranch, Johnny arrives in time to stop them and finds Foster's hat, which sports a hat band Sandra had given him. Sandra realizes that her fiancé is implicated in all the troubles. Foster then reports to Wheelock, who tells him to kill Johnny and Joe. While Johnny and the crew continue stringing the lines, Foster pulls a gun on Sandra and orders her to summon Johnny and Joe. Instead, Sandra warns them and struggles with Foster, who runs off and heads for Wheelock's office. Johnny and Joe tail him there, and during the ensuing shootout, Foster and Wheelock are killed. Back at the ranch, the last of the telegraph wire is strung in time to fulfill the contract, and Johnny sends the first message to his headquarters. Leaving Sandra and Joe together, Johnny moves on to his next assignment.
Director
Lambert Hillyer
Cast
Johnny Mack Brown
Raymond Hatton
Reno Blair
Kenneth Macdonald
Dennis Moore
Riley Hill
Frank La Rue
Ted Adams
Virginia Carroll
Wm. H. Ruhl
Kansas Moehring
Bill Hale
Lane Bradford
Robert Woodward
Boyd Stockman
Crew
Charles J. Bigelow
J. Benton Cheney
Eddie Davis
John C. Fuller
James Fullerton
Edward Kay
Harry Neumann
Len Powers
Barney A. Sarecky
Earl Sitar
Vin Taylor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title for this film was Thunder on the Range.
