Land of the Open Range
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Edward Killy
Tim Holt
Ray Whitley
Janet Waldo
Lee "lasses" White
Hobart Cavanaugh
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
The death of Luke Archer, a crooked real estate salesman who illegally acquired a 64,000 acre ranch, brings chaos to a small Arizona cattle town when Archer bequeaths his land to ex-convicts. Under the terms of the will, to be executed by Archer's dishonest attorney, Gil Carse, the ranch is to be given away during a land rush in which only ex-convicts are eligible. In anticipation of the influx of criminals who will be flocking to town to claim the land, injured sheriff Sam Walton appoints his nephew, Dave Walton, and cowhands Whopper and Smokey as deputies. Among those drawn to town are George "Dad" Cook and his daughter Mary. Dave is at first suspicious of them, but Dad, who was imprisoned for shooting a man in self- defense, soon wins the deputy's confidence. Meanwhile, Smokey and Whopper see Carse and his men, Dode and Tonto, survey a parcel of land along the river and realize that the attorney plans to claim the land to build a dam. To thwart Carse, Dave asks Dad, who owns a fast horse, to beat Carse to the claim. When one of Carse's men sees Whopper and Pinky Gardner, an erstwhile jockey and conman, loitering in front of the lawyer's office, Carse suspects that they have broken into his safe to discover his plans and decides to eliminate Dad's horse, Warrior, and Pinky, his jockey. The next day, as Mary exercises Warrior, Dode gallops alongside the fence and forces him off a cliff, thus breaking the animal's leg. Next, Tonto runs Pinky out of town at gunpoint, but Whopper circumvents Carse's scheme by winning Dode's speedy steed in a bet. When Whopper gives the horse to Dad to ride in the land rush, Carse sets up an illegal relay of horses for his team. During the race, Carse's riders intercept Dad and are about to claim the land when Dave, who has witnessed the illegal change of horses, disqualifies them. This ignites a shootout between Carse and his men and Dave, Dad, Whopper, Pinky and Smokey, who have ridden to the rescue. After Dave and his men apprehend the outlaws, Dad forms a water company to finance a dam for the ranchers, and Sam, who has now healed, takes over as sheriff.
Director
Edward Killy
Cast
Tim Holt
Ray Whitley
Janet Waldo
Lee "lasses" White
Hobart Cavanaugh
Lee Bonnell
Roy Barcroft
John Elliott
Frank Ellis
Tom London
J. Merrill Holmes
Lindy Wade
Ruth Clifford
Bud Geary
Duke Green
Frank Mills
Henry Roquemore
Fern Emmett
John Ince
James Carlisle
Pierce Lyden
Jack Gargan
Rita Owin
Charles Phipps
Ida Shoemaker
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to the Hollywood Reporter review, the land-rush sequence in this film utilized outtakes from the 1931 RKO film Cimarron (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.0718).
