The Fighting Frontiersman

This is a typically lively early Durango Kid western -- star Starrett had been making movies since 1930s and had moved into B westerns half a dozen years later -- with some good songs by Smiley Burnette and Western Swing group, the Georgia Crackers. Cinematographer Philip Tanura's work is unremarkable, although his interior shots are very formal.

The story is centered around people looking for and fighting over Santa Ana's gold, which is just as good a starting point as any for a B western Western, since it all come down to an arrangement of the tropes of westerns. There is a nice, confusing series of double-crosses to keep the viewer interested. There is an early series example of using a narrator to set the story. With a screen time of 61 minutes, it helps to get through at such a speed, although later Durango Kids would wind up using it as a crutch as budgets tightened.