The Return of Wildfire
Cast & Crew
Ray Taylor
Richard Arlen
Patricia Morison
Mary Beth Hughes
James Millican
Reed Hadley
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Judy Marlowe, who runs a horse ranch with her father and sister Pat, is chasing a wild horse, Wildfire, through the hills when she has an accident. Drifter Dobe Williams assists her back to the ranch, and impressed, Pat asks her father to give Dobe a job while he, too, tries to capture Wildfire. Ranch foreman Frank Keller, meanwhile, has lost $6,000 gambling at Marty Quinn's saloon, and Quinn knows that the Marlowe ranch has about five hundred head of excellent breeding stock and insists Keller buy them for him. However, "Pop" Marlowe, realizing that Quinn is only trying to push prices up, wants no part of the deal and has consigned the herd to another buyer. Quinn reminds Keller, who is courting Judy, that should anything happen to Pop, Judy will inherit half of the ranch. Meanwhile Dobe and Pat get to know each other. One night, Wildfire comes to the corral and breaks out the entire herd. Although the ranch hands manage to round up the animals, Keller slugs Pop and leaves him to die under the hooves of the approaching herd. Dobe tries to console Pat and they grow closer, but Judy makes Keller jealous by flirting with Dobe. Under pressure from Keller, Judy, who also wants to spite Pat for her interest in Dobe, takes it upon herself to sell the herd to Quinn. After Pat informs Dobe that the sale is none of his business, he decides to leave. As soon as Pat discovers that Pop had already sold the horses and had even received a partial payment, she and Judy ride after Dobe and Judy apologizes. Dobe asks Quinn to resell the horses, but he refuses and pistol whips Dobe. As they need to honor the conditions of the prior sale, Pat and Dobe decide to trap and tame the large herd of wild horses that Wildfire leads. While Judy tries to break up her sister's romance with Dobe, he and the ranch hands round up the herd and soon have more than three hundred horses broken in. Quinn tells Keller that, for reasons of his own, he does not want the horses to be sold and, using his knowledge about Pop's murder, blackmails him into getting the ranch hands drunk to slow down the work. Dobe finds out that Quinn has also hired all the men, but at gunpoint takes them back, then sobers them up and convinces them to stay and help Pat. Later, after Quinn, Keller and henchman Dirk stage a raid on the ranch, during which Pat is injured, Quinn becomes concerned that Wildfire may lead the herd back to the wild and orders Keller to trap him. However, Wildfire resists Keller's attempts and ultimately stomps him to death. Believing that Wildfire ran the herd off, Dobe goes after him and is about to shoot him when Judy brings the news that Pat has recovered and has identified Quinn as the guilty party. Soon after, Quinn shoots Wildfire, wounding him, and Dobe stampedes the herd back to the ranch, then goes after Quinn and Dirk. Dobe shoots Dirk and defeats Quinn after a long brawl. Back at the ranch, after Wildfire has recovered, Dobe and Pat allow him to return to the wild. Judy then renounces any claim on Dobe, and he and Pat face a happy future.
Director
Ray Taylor
Cast
Richard Arlen
Patricia Morison
Mary Beth Hughes
James Millican
Reed Hadley
Chris Pin Martin
Stanley Andrews
Holly Bane
Edmund Cobb
Highland Dale
Crew
Alfred Berke
Lew Brown
Elizabeth Burbridge
Robert M. Cowan
Noble Craig
Archie Dalzell
Albert Glasser
Milton Gold
Ray Henderson
Moree Herring
Carl K. Hittleman
Carl K. Hittleman
Paul Landres
Robert L. Lippert
Robert L. Lippert
Ray Mercer
Ernest W. Miller
Yolanda Molinari
Willard H. Sheldon
Walter C. Smith
Gloria Welsch
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Dialogue director Gloria Welsch's last name was spelled "Welch" in the opening credits.
