Rolling Down the Great Divide
Cast & Crew
Peter Stewart
Bill "cowboy Rambler" Boyd
Art Davis
Lee Powell
Wanda Mckay
Glenn Strange
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
With the onset of World War II, the Army posts a notice asking ranchers to do their patriotic duty by selling horses to the Cavalry. Although ranchers in Watertown wish to comply, they are frustrated by a recent rash of rustling, which has deprived them of their herds. Ranchers are suspicious of Lem Bartlett, a former cattle baron, because their horses began disappearing from his pastures as soon as he allowed the animals to graze in them. When U.S. Marshal Lee Powell reports in to Sheriff Snowden, he learns that the Army has picked up short-wave radio transmissions in the area, but their origins have not been determined. Lee first makes contact with Lem, who is uncooperative and outraged to hear that his neighbors have accused him of rustling. In the meantime, Lee's partners, singing cowboys Art Davis and Bill Boyd, meet with Dale, one of the mobile radio operators, who claims to be operating a traveling recording studio. Art and Bill are later hired by Joe, the owner of the Border Café, who unknown to them, is the mastermind behind the rustling. Joe communicates with Dale and his gang by a short-wave radio, which is carefully hidden below the café. On the way back from Lem's ranch, Lee encounters the rustlers, and chases them to their hiding place. Unable to find the entrance, Lee returns to town, but Dale is alarmed that he got so close and orders his men to immediately rustle another herd. One evening, Lee, Art and Bill meet up at the Border Café, and Lee spies Joe through a window using his short-wave radio. After one of the ranchers is killed during a raid, Lee discovers the secret entrance to the hideout, where the short-wave radio wagon is parked, and hundreds of horses are being kept. Lee rides back to town to warn the sheriff, but by the time they return with a posse, the rustlers have moved the herds. After Lee returns to town, Joe's waitress, Rita, warns him that Joe has discovered that they are marshals. Joe and his men attack Lee shortly after, and after taking Rita hostage, they knock Lee out and tie him up. Joe then calls Dale and arranges for them to meet at Castle Rock. Shortly after, Art and Bill approach Dale to ask him to record one of their songs. Dale takes them hostage, however, the cowboys artfully "entertain" themselves by singing a song over the radio which contains clues as to their whereabouts. After awakening, Lee is freed by Rita, and hears his friends's song over Joe's radio. Lee rounds up the sheriff and ranchers, and they all ride to Castle Rock to capture the rustlers. The horses are then readied for sale to the Army, and the three marshals depart.
Director
Peter Stewart
Cast
Bill "cowboy Rambler" Boyd
Art Davis
Lee Powell
Wanda Mckay
Glenn Strange
Karl Hackett
Jack M. Holmes
Ted Adams
Jack Ingram
John Elliott
Crew
Bill Boyd
Melville De Lay
Jack Greenhalgh
Johnny Lange
George Milton
Sigmund Neufeld
Leon Payne
Lew Porter
Bert Sternbach
Holbrook N. Todd
Hans Weeren
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film opens with the following written foreword: "War has come to our country again, and with it an army demand for horses and more horses...the U.S. Cavalry is on the march alongside of modern tanks and trucks as mobile, hard-driving and courageous as ever! But with a great demand comes the renewed activities of those jackals of the plains...horse-thieves!...always a hanging offense in the old and new west!" Modern sources include George Chesebro, Horace B. Carpenter, Jack Roper, Curley Dresden, Dennis Moore, Tex Palmer, Rube Dalroy, Art Dillard and Jack Evans in the cast. For additional information on the "Frontier Marshal" series, see the entry below for Texas Manhunt, and consult the Series Index.
