Landrush
Cast & Crew
Vernon Keays
Charles Starrett
Doris Houck
Ozie Waters
Smiley Burnette
Emmett Lynn
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the 1880s, a group of settlers traveling by covered wagon through a part of the West known as the Free Territory is ambushed and held up at gun point by Claw Hawkins' gang of desperadoes. The gang takes the settlers' money, demands that they return to the nearby town of Border Plain and warns them to stay away from the Free Territory, which they call the Spur. Just as the gang is about to make its getaway, however, The Durango Kid, a masked rider for justice, arrives on the scene and begins shooting at the gang. After luring the gang into a trap, The Durango Kid attacks the desperadoes and retrieves the stolen money. Before returning the money to the settlers, The Durango Kid changes back into his cowboy clothes and resumes his identity as the surveyor Steve Harmon. A short time later, in Border Plain, Jake Parker, the editor of the town newspaper, leads a recall campaign to oust Sheriff Jim Collins, who is in league with the Hawkins gang. Parker vows to force Collins' resignation by forming a citizen's league and by printing an editorial in which he will formally accuse him of killing a Pony Express rider during a holdup. The recall effort easily wins the support of Smiley, a clumsy dentist and carpenter, who has long suspected that the sheriff is crooked. While Steve, accompanied by some of Smiley's men, goes on a surveying mission, Hawkins tries to use one of the marked bills stolen from the Pony Express robbery to bribe Parker into dropping the editorial. When Parker rejects the bribe, Hawkins knocks the editor unconscious and ransacks his office. Parker, however, manages to hold onto the marked bill, and his office is saved from complete destruction by the arrival of Steve and Smiley. Steve quickly changes into his Durango Kid outfit, subdues the gang and saves Mary, Jake's daughter, from harm. Soon after Steve and Smiley's men return to their surveying mission in the Spur, a shot rings out and one of the men is injured. Steve discovers Hawkins' hideout while investigating the source of the gunfire, but he is immediately driven off the land by Hawkins' men. Later, when Parker distributes posters announcing the opening of the Spur to homesteaders, Caleb Garvey, a ranch broker who is really the secret leader of Hawkins' gang, destroys the posters. On the day of the land rush, the Hawkins gang tries to prevent the settlers from reaching the Spur by setting a prairie fire, but Steve succeeds in putting out the flames with the help of the settlers. After changing into his Durango Kid disguise, Steve pursues the Hawkins gang and arrives at the hideout just as Garvey double-crosses Hawkins and shoots him. Steve then captures Garvey, and is thanked by the homesteaders, who are now free to settle the land.
Director
Vernon Keays
Cast
Charles Starrett
Doris Houck
Ozie Waters
Smiley Burnette
Emmett Lynn
Bud Geary
Stephen Barclay
Robert Kortman
George Chesebro
Bud Osborne
Ted French
George Russell
George Hoey
John Tyrrell
Sam Garrett
Roy Butler
Curt Barrett
John Hawks
Ethan Laidlaw
Russell Meeker
Crew
Juanita L. Bell
Smiley Burnette
Charles Clague
Colbert Clark
Philip Faulkner
Stephen Foster
James M. Goss
Benjamin Russell Hanby
George B. Meehan Jr.
George Montgomery
William O'connor
Michael Simmons
James Sweeney
J. S. Westmoreland
Edwin Wetzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
For additional information on "The Durango Kid" series, consult the Series Index and see the entry below for The Return of the Durango Kid.
