The Old Chisholm Trail
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Elmer Clifton
Johnny Mack Brown
Tex Ritter
Fuzzy Knight
Jennifer Holt
Mady Correll
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Dusty Gardner and his fellow cattlemen drive their herd along the Old Chisholm Trail on their way to Abeline. Dusty leaves the herd to look for a watering hole, but finds only the Turner Ranch, which charges an outrageous five dollars a head for water. Dusty almost gets into a gunfight with Ed Phillips, foreman of the Turner Ranch, over the atrocious fee and insists on seeing the ranch owner. He is surprised to learn that a young woman, Belle Turner, owns the ranch, and she has little sympathy for his plight. He is then forced to detour his herd to Lost River, where he meets Mary Lee, the proprietor of the local trading post, and gambler Montana Smith. He learns that even they must ship their water in, as the river that used to run on their land dried up and seemingly disappeared. Dusty then goes into the town of Gunsight to get an injunction against Belle. There, he runs into his old friends, Jimmy and Alvin J. Pentergast Firehill, now known as the magician/hypnotist Polario. Dusty meets with the sheriff, but he offers little help. Acting upon the lawman's suggestion, Belle agrees to a meeting with the cattlemen at Mary's trading post. During the meeting, however, Belle's men stampede the unattended herd onto her land, and she then announces that she will not return their herd until the cattlemen agree to pay her toll fees. The cattlemen decide to leave their cattle on the Turner ranch to "fatten up," while they consider their options. Through Polario's ineptness, they discover an underground river near the trading post, and Dusty and the other cattlemen offer to put up their cattle as collateral in to order to dig a well. Belle learns of their plans and sends her men to ambush the rigging equipment. They manage only to wound Burt Hanson, the well-digger, so she has Mike Carey, one of her henchmen, pretend to help the cattlemen with the well. After two weeks, the well is still dry, and Dusty finally catches Mike sabotaging the equipment. Montana then returns to the trading post to inform Mary that Belle has bought out Hanson. While Mary tells Dusty the bad news, Montana smashes some of the digging equipment. The next morning, on their way into town to get a new engine for the drill, Dusty and Polario run into Montana. After Dusty and Montana fight, the gambler confesses that he destroyed the engine out of jealousy. Realizing his mistake, Montana offers to double-cross Belle. He tells Dusty to pretend to sell part of his cattle to Belle, in order to raise enough money to buy a new engine. With the rental deadline coming up, the cattlemen decide to shoot the well with dynamite. Before they can do this, however, Belle and her men attack the trading post. During the ensuing battle, Polario mistakenly drops a bundle of dynamite down the well and strikes water. Belle and her gang are then captured, and Montana rides off, leaving Dusty and Mary together.
Director
Elmer Clifton
Cast
Johnny Mack Brown
Tex Ritter
Fuzzy Knight
Jennifer Holt
Mady Correll
Earle Hodgins
Roy Barcroft
Edmund Cobb
Budd Buster
The Jimmy Wakely Trio
Jimmy Wakely
Scotty Harrel
Johnny Bond
George Sherwood
Roy Butler
Michael Vallon
Crew
E. V. Body
Bernard B. Brown
Elmer Clifton
Ralph M. Delacy
Oliver Drake
Oliver Drake
Stephen Foster
Harry Fraser
R. A. Gausman
A. J. Gilmore
Jess Moulin
Jack Otterson
Milton Rosen
H. J. Salter
William Sickner
Ray Snyder
Jimmy Wakely
Mack Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Modern sources include Scoop Martin in the cast.
