The Utah Trail
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Al Herman
Tex Ritter
White Flash
Horace Murphy
Peewee Pollard
Adele Pearce
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Government agent Tex Stewart goes to the Border States Railroad office to talk with the president of the company about a mysterious "ghost train" that has been seen in the territory. Jeffers, the president, is dead, however, and his daughter Sally, under the influence of Hiram Slaughter, will not hire the detective, who is posing as an outlaw named "The Pecos Kid." Later, Tex and his friends, Ananias and Pee Wee, see the train, and Tex concludes that it is really part of a cattle rustling operation. When Tex goes back to Sally to tell her about the cattle rustling, she reluctantly agrees to hire him. Later, Slaughter, who secretly heads the gang of cattle rustlers, meets Badger and some of his other men in a saloon and tells them to "take care" of Tex. Badger is anxious to comply, and when Tex gets word that Slaughter wants to see him in the saloon, he goes, accompanied by Pee Wee and Ananias. Badger threatens Tex, warning him to leave town, after which a fistfight breaks out among Badger's cohorts and Tex and his pals. After a knife is thrown at Tex in the melee, he escapes with Pee Wee and Ananias, who soon discover the body of Mason, a railroad employee, by the river. They learn that the ghost train has never been seen west of Desert Wells, a town near the Mexican border. Soon Tex and the boys discover that the cattle rustlers are sidetracking the train by using obsolete tracks leading to the border. They follow the train and find it at a hideout in a valley just across the border. Tex then takes the train back to town. Although Badger and his men see what Tex is doing, they do not try to stop him and instead tell Slaughter that now Tex will be blamed for the cattle rustling. Slaughter then goes to Sheriff Clayton to accuse Tex of being the rustler and tells him that Tex uses the train to take cattle across the border. Clayton then arrests Tex, Pee Wee and Ananias, and Sally turns against them. The three are sentenced to be hanged for cattle rustling, but Clayton is revealed to be an old friend of Tex's and, after the bank is robbed, he releases the three men to join his posse. As they approach the ghost train, Badger is killed, then Tex jumps on board, fights Slaughter and pushes him off just before the train reaches the border. Finally, Tex returns to town to serenade Sally.
Director
Al Herman
Cast
Tex Ritter
White Flash
Horace Murphy
Peewee Pollard
Adele Pearce
Karl Hackett
Charles King
Edward Cassidy
David O'brien
Bud Osborne
Lynton Brent
Rudy Sooter
Tex Ritter's Tornadoes
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the opening title card of the film bears a 1938 copyright statement for Grand National Films, Inc., the film was not included in the copyright registry. "Tex Ritter and his horse White Flash" appears above the film's title, but in the end credits, White Flash is listed last. Portions of the picture were shot on location in Chatsworth, CA, according to news items in Hollywood Reporter, which also note that this was the last Ritter film for Grand National before his move to Monogram Pictures. His first picture for Monogram, Starlight Over Texas began production in mid-July of 1938. Variety incorrectly identified Tex Ritter's character as Tex Lawrence. Modern sources include the following additional cast members: Sherry Tansey, Horace B. Carpenter, Herman Hack, Chick Hannon, George Morrell, Denver Dixon, Ray Jones, and Oscar Gahan.
