By Glenn Erickson
The Cheyenne Kid
Brief Synopsis
An honest cowboy is mistaken for a bandit.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Robert Hill
Director
Tom Keene
Tom Larkin
Mary Mason
Hope Winters
Rosco Ates
Gaby Bush
Otto Hoffman
Cal Winters
Al Bridge
Denver Editor
Film Details
Also Known As
Land of the Six-Shooter
Genre
Western
Release Date
Jan
20,
1933
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Sir Piegan Passes" by W. C. Tuttle in Adventure (New York, 10 Aug 1923).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 1m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6 reels
Synopsis
At a county rodeo, ace bronco rider Tom Larkin bets shifty cowboy Tate that he can ride the notorious horse Widowmaker. Although Tate tricks Tom's slow-witted friend Gaby Bush into spreading cockleberry juice on the already skittish horse, Tom rides Widowmaker and wins the bet. When Tom discovers that Tate talked pretty Hope Winters into betting her and her father's entire savings against him, he asks Gaby to give Hope his winnings. Before Gaby delivers the cash, however, Tate picks his pocket and takes off on his horse. Furious, Tom trails Tate, who shoots and kills Tom's horse and strands Tom in the brush. Eventually Tom meets up with Denver Ed, a vicious killer who, unknown to Tom, is wanted for the murder of Tate. The saddleless Denver offers to play the horseless Tom a hand of poker, but when Tom discovers that Denver is cheating, he overpowers the killer and takes his horse and gun. Tom rides to Micaville, where he is spotted by Mark Hollister, an assayer who has befriended Hope as part of a plot to take over her father's mine, which only he knows is rich with minerals. Based on information from Denver's "wanted" poster, Hollister assumes that Tom is the killer and offers him $500 to kill Hope's father. Tom takes the money and rides to warn Hope about Hollister, but is shot at by her suspicious father. Tom then returns to Micaville to warn Gaby, who is working in Hollister's assay office on a formula for acid-made gold, to get out before he is caught with Hollister. Sure that the acid-stained money that Hollister gave him will implicate him, Tom confronts the assayer and, with Gaby's help, holds him at gunpoint. After Tom leaves to find the sheriff, Denver, who has been hiding in Hollister's back room, overpowers Gaby and, at Hollister's command, shoots at Hope's father through the office window. As Tom rushes back to accuse Hollister and Denver, one of Gaby's back-room gold concoctions explodes. In the ensuing confusion, Denver escapes but is chased and tied up by Tom, who then rides to rescue Hope from Hollister. After a fierce pursuit, Tom defeats Hollister and is rewarded with a passionate kiss from Hope.
Director
Robert Hill
Director
Cast
Tom Keene
Tom Larkin
Mary Mason
Hope Winters
Rosco Ates
Gaby Bush
Otto Hoffman
Cal Winters
Al Bridge
Denver Editor
Alan Roscoe
Mark Hollister
Anderson Lawler
Tate
Crew
Film Details
Also Known As
Land of the Six-Shooter
Genre
Western
Release Date
Jan
20,
1933
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Sir Piegan Passes" by W. C. Tuttle in Adventure (New York, 10 Aug 1923).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 1m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6 reels
Articles
The Cheyenne Kid (1933) -
The uniquely American western genre was the backbone of the fledgling Hollywood film industry, and vintage series westerns are a rich, unexplored cinema territory populated with interesting personalities. By the 1930s all the studios fronted western units, and RKO's got the benefit of top talent like cameraman Nicholas Musuraca and composer Max Steiner. Cowboy star Tom Keene had worked with Cecil B. DeMille and advanced to star in his own western series, playing noble cowpokes with different names but uniformly spotless ethics. His The Cheyenne Kid (1933) was directed by veteran Robert F. Hill, who had been filming oaters as early as 1916. Good stories were remade more than once, and the W.C. Tuttle yarn for this feature had already served as the basis of Man in the Rough (1928), a silent series western for the even more famous Bob Steele. Keene's virtuous rodeo contestant Tom wins a big purse by successfully riding a bronco named 'Widowmaker,' but he then becomes entangled with crooks and gunmen while trying to return the savings of the defenseless, demure Hope (Mary Mason). Tom spends much of the film mistakenly identified as the murderous outlaw Denver Ed, yet with his sidekick Gaby (stuttering comic Roscoe Ates) manages to foil a mining swindle aimed at Hope's father. This was the only script by co-writer Jack Curtis, who had been acting in westerns since 1915. A novel twist has the eccentric Gaby play sagebrush alchemist, trying to make gold by treating ore with a dangerous, explosive acid. BR>
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
The Cheyenne Kid (1933) -
The uniquely American western genre was the backbone of the fledgling Hollywood film industry, and vintage series westerns are a rich, unexplored cinema territory populated with interesting personalities. By the 1930s all the studios fronted western units, and RKO's got the benefit of top talent like cameraman Nicholas Musuraca and composer Max Steiner. Cowboy star Tom Keene had worked with Cecil B. DeMille and advanced to star in his own western series, playing noble cowpokes with different names but uniformly spotless ethics. His The Cheyenne Kid (1933) was directed by veteran Robert F. Hill, who had been filming oaters as early as 1916. Good stories were remade more than once, and the W.C. Tuttle yarn for this feature had already served as the basis of Man in the Rough (1928), a silent series western for the even more famous Bob Steele. Keene's virtuous rodeo contestant Tom wins a big purse by successfully riding a bronco named 'Widowmaker,' but he then becomes entangled with crooks and gunmen while trying to return the savings of the defenseless, demure Hope (Mary Mason). Tom spends much of the film mistakenly identified as the murderous outlaw Denver Ed, yet with his sidekick Gaby (stuttering comic Roscoe Ates) manages to foil a mining swindle aimed at Hope's father. This was the only script by co-writer Jack Curtis, who had been acting in westerns since 1915. A novel twist has the eccentric Gaby play sagebrush alchemist, trying to make gold by treating ore with a dangerous, explosive acid. BR>
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Land of the Six-Shooter. News items in Film Daily state that writer Arthur Horman "assisted" Jack Jungmeyer on the script and that Keene Thompson, who is credited in trade reviews and the copyright records with the screenplay, "put additional thrills" into the story. The exact nature of Horman's and Jungmeyer's contributions to the final film is not known. Although the film credits John E. Tribby with the film's recording, copyright records and reviews list Clem Portman as the sound recorder. A Film Daily production news item adds John Kelly to the cast, but his participation in the final film has not been confirmed. In 1928, Wallace Fox directed Bob Steele in a FBO Pictures' version of Tuttle's story called Man in the Rough (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.3400). RKO remade Tuttle's story in 1940 as The Fargo Kid .
