Prairie Schooners
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Sam Nelson
Bill Elliott
Evelyn Young
Dub Taylor
Kenneth Harlan
Ray Teal
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Virginia Benton and her foreman, Cannonball, are attempting to stop a group of farmers from lynching Dalton Stull, who is taking advantage of a drought in Kansas to foreclose on loans, when their old friend, Wild Bill Hickok, drifts by. Bill agrees to represent them in peaceful negotiations, but when he fails to affect Stull's position, he suggests that the farmers pay off their debt on their equipment and livestock and move to Colorado. Virginia shares her savings and joins the wagon train. Stull and his partner, Wolf Tanner, believe that the group's destination may jeopardize their lucrative fur business, so they ride ahead, taking guns to the Pawnee. During an attack against the settlers by the Pawnee, Stull takes Virginia hostage. At the Pawnee camp, Bill pleads in vain for the farmers' rights, but Cannonball recognizes Tanner and exposes him as the man who had sold guns to the Sioux, which they had used against the Pawnee. Chief Sanche soon realizes that Stull and Tanner are the enemies of his people and decides to allow the farmers to cross peacefully to Colorado. Although Bill says that he is considering a homestead, Virginia knows he will not give up his wanderlust.
Director
Sam Nelson
Cast
Bill Elliott
Evelyn Young
Dub Taylor
Kenneth Harlan
Ray Teal
Bob Burns
Netta Packer
Richard Fiske
Edmund Cobb
Jim Thorpe
Sammy Stein
Ned Glass
Lucien Maxell
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Into the Crimson West. Following the opening credits, there is a brief montage, accompanied by a voice-over narration that gives background on the Kansas drought presented in the story. Bill Elliott first appeared as Hickok in the 1938 Columbia serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, from which he adopted the sobriquet "Wild Bill." In 1940, Columbia inaugurated a feature-length series of Wild Bill Hickok pictures, beginning with Prairie Schooners. The series, which does not accurately portray the historical facts of Hickok's life, consisted of eight films and ended with the 1942 picture Prairie Gunsmoke. All films in the series starred Elliott as Hickok and were produced by Leon Barhsa. In the first films, Dub Taylor played Hickok's sidekick, "Cannonball." Taylor was replaced by Frank Mitchell in the 1942 films Prairie Gunsmoke and The Devil's Trail. In the 1941 picture King of Dodge City, Tex Ritter joined the ensemble. Modern sources add Merrill McCormack and George Morrell to the cast. For more information about the real Hickok, please see the entry above for The Plainsman.
