Rio Grande Raiders

Sunset Carson is a driver for the stagecoach line, Harding Transportation. His brother Jeff (Bob Steele) who has just been paroled from prison also works for Harding Transportation. Marc Redmond, the corrupt owner of the rival Redmond Transportation Line, played by the familiar and always good Tristram Coffin (what a great name!) has Jeff under his thumb because it was he who enabled Jeff's release from prison. Jeff quits the Harding Company and goes to work for the shady Redmond. An action highlight is the stagecoach race; in this one Sunset is pushed off the stage falling under it, and then climbs up the back of the fast moving stage and has a fight on top of the stage with the bad guy who had pushed him off. What an exciting stunt. There was one scene that caught me off guard – Sunset and Nancy Harding (Linda Stirling) flat out lie to the Sheriff about a certain incident. I don't recall ever seeing the hero telling such a lie in a B Western. The supporting cast does a solid job in this movie and Bob Steele certainly was a better actor than Sunset Carson. One slightly jarring element in the casting of the characters is that Sunset Carson was 6' 6" and Bob Steele was 5' 5". Given that they were brothers, they had a lot of scenes together. Every time I saw them together I couldn't help thinking of Mutt and Jeff.