Wagons Westward
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Lew Landers
Chester Morris
Anita Louise
Buck Jones
Ona Munson
George "gabby" Hayes
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Although identical in appearance, twins David and Tom Cook exhibit vastly different temperaments: David is as kind and honorable as Tom is cruel and vicious. Upon their father's death, Tom goes to live with his uncle Hardtack in New Mexico, while David remains behind to care for their mother. Tom develops into a malevolent outlaw, while David becomes a man of the law and is assigned to apprehend Tom and two other renegades, Jack Hardman and Bill Marsden. Because Tom controls Sheriff Jim McDaniels, he has been invulnerable to the law in New Mexico, and so, David lures his brother home by sending him a fake telegram telling of his mother's illness. When Tom returns home, they lock him in jail. Posing as Tom, David then rides to New Mexico and undertakes a campaign to convict Marsden and Hardman by persuading them to pool their gangs under his leadership. Before his imprisonment, Tom had been courting Phyllis O'Conover, an entertainer at the Bonanza Dance Hall, although her older sister Julie strongly objected to the alliance. David continues his brother's courtship, but finds himself falling in love with Julie. Upon learning David's true identity, Julie promises to marry him, and Phyllis, believing that her sister is stealing her beau, threatens suicide. Julie, broken-hearted, urges David to marry her sister, and the honorable David consents to the match. Using a government wagon train laden with gold bullion as a decoy, David plans to trap the outlaws at Black Canyon, but before he can implement his plan, Tom escapes from jail and rides for New Mexico. When McDaniels intercepts a telegram telling of Tom's escape, he and Marsden take David prisoner. Pima, Tom's Indian servant who detests his master for his cruelty, sees David's capture and comes to his rescue. As David and Pima ride to warn the wagon train of danger, Tom arrives in Mesa City, where he kills Phyllis for her faithlessness. Meanwhile, at Black Canyon, David, with the help of Pima and his band of Indians, holds off the outlaws and arrests Hardman and McDaniels. Just as the battle ends, Hardtack arrives and warns David that Tom is in town. David gallops back to town, and the two brothers face each other at the Bonanza Dance Hall. In the ensuing gun fight, Tom wounds David and is about to finish him off when Hardtack shoots him before he can pull the trigger. After mourning the death of her sister, Julie finally agrees to marry David.
Director
Lew Landers
Cast
Chester Morris
Anita Louise
Buck Jones
Ona Munson
George "gabby" Hayes
Guinn "big Boy" Williams
Douglas Fowley
John Gallaudet
Virginia Brissac
Trevor Bardette
Selmer Jackson
Charles Stevens
Wayne Hull
Warren Hull
Crew
Cy Feuer
Phil Ford
Harrison Jacobs
John Victor Mackay
Joseph Moncure March
Ernest Miller
Ernest Nims
Adele Palmer
Armand Schaefer
Murray Seldeen
Al Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Modern sources note that Edmund Cobb, Joe McGuinn and Tex Cooper appeared in this picture.
