Smoke Lightning
Cast & Crew
David Howard
George O'brien
Nell O'day
Betsy King Ross
Frank Atkinson
Clarence Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
During an electrical storm, Smoke Mason and his English sidekick, Alf Bailey, ride into a small California town. Seeing a blonde with packages standing in a doorway, Smoke attempts to carry her to her car, but he falls in a puddle and gets her wet, and she drives off in a huff. Smoke and Alf enter a cafe, where they find a poker game in the back room. After seeing Jake Tully giving signals to Sheriff Archie Kyle, who has been winning plenty from rancher Carter Blake, Smoke sits in. Later in the night, Smoke deals a full house to Blake. After Tully passes cards under the table to Kyle to give him an "aces high" full house, Smoke, who only has two jacks, deals himself three cards and bets. Blake, who already owes $6,500, asks for $3,500 more in credit and bets it all. Kyle believes that he has won, until Smoke reveals that he is holding four deuces. After Blake signs over to Smoke the deed to the 5,000 acre Canyon Walls Ranch, which Kyle had been trying to obtain, Smoke, who cheated to keep Kyle from winning, goes to Blake's hotel room to return the deed, but hears a gun shot and finds Blake dead from a self-inflicted wound. At the ranch, Smoke find Blake's tomboyish daughter Betsy and arranges to be her legal guardian after signing over the deed to the ranch to her. Meanwhile, Kyle arranges for confidence man and blackmailer Sam Edson to pose as Betsy's uncle Joe from the East. Kyle plans to have Smoke framed for murdering Blake, so that Edson can become Betsy's legal guardian. Smoke takes Betsy to school, and he is caught by the teacher, Dorothy Benson, the blonde whom he earlier carried in the rain storm, imitating a sour old maid teacher. When Dorothy comments that Betsy looks like a boy, Smoke invites her to the ranch to show Betsy how to put on a dress, a task at which he and Alf failed miserably. That night, as Smoke tries to seduce Dorothy, a ring slips off her finger, and she explains that her fiancé, a wealthy, handsome polo player, is in the East. Unperturbed, Smoke continues to try to kiss Dorothy. She acquiesces, but they are interrupted when Kyle arrives with a warrant for his arrest. With Alf's help, Smoke breaks out of jail and returns to the ranch, where he overhears Kyle and Edson plan to send Betsy away on a train. Smoke holds them up and has Alf take Betsy to Dorothy's house. Kyle, however, finds Betsy at Dorothy's house and takes her to the station. After the train departs, Smoke takes a shortcut and catches the train, then climbs on it, disarms some of Kyle's men and rescues Betsy. Kyle is convicted and Smoke, who is appointed Betsy's legal guardian, plans to marry Dorothy, who reveals that the ring really belonged to her mother.
Director
David Howard
Cast
George O'brien
Nell O'day
Betsy King Ross
Frank Atkinson
Clarence Wilson
Morgan Wallace
Virginia Sale
George Burton
E. A. Warren
Douglass Dumbrille
Arthur Hoyt
Crew
David Cox
Bernard Freericks
Duke Goux
Arthur Lange
Booth Mccracken
Sidney Mitchell
Jack Murray
Gordon Rigby
Harry Ruskin
Sidney Wagner
Joseph Wright
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Canyon Walls. The title card in the opening credits reads "Zane Grey's Smoke Lightning." At the time of filming, Betsy King Ross was a nine-year-old juvenile rodeo champion. Motion Picture Herald, in some release charts, erroneously lists the running time at 100 minutes.
