Yankee Fakir

Pitchmen Douglas Fowley and Ransom Sherman roll their wagon into a small town and start hawking their wares. They stay at the boarding house run by Joan Woodbury, the daughter of a border policeman who's murdered Fowley is in love with Miss Woodbury, and investigates; he and Sherman are soon thrown in jail to stop them.

It's a decent little comedy-drama written, produced, and directed by W. Lee Wilder, full of complacently written stock characters played by skilled actors. Marc Lawrence is there, playing a bad guy, and he's just enough differentiated from his usual sweaty hoodlum to be interesting. However, it's Clem Bevans, playing yet another variation on his old coot, who steals the show, with his sly, self-aware prospector. When he's around, the movie is lively. Without him, it's just a dull time-waster.