The Gunman from Bodie

The Rough Riders consisted of nine films made during 1941-1942. All but the final one featured Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton (for comic relief)--for some odd reason McCoy was not in their final film. When Jones was tragically killed in a fire, the series was discontinued. It's a shame, really, as the films were generally quite good for B-movies--very comparable to the very prolific Three Mesquiteers series.

This Rough Riders feature has a minor twist on their old reliable formula. In this case, instead of Tim McCoy posing as the bad guy and Buck Jones arriving in town as a lawman, the roles are reversed--and McCoy is in town looking for a supposed bandit, Bodie Bronson (Jones). Naturally this is all a ruse to enable Jones to infiltrate a band of evil rustlers and discover who murdered a family at the beginning of the movie. I would agree with the other reviewer who said that the plot is a lot more complicated than usual--it certainly is. But it's pretty good and well worth seeing regardless. I predictably good entry to the series.

By the way, the Rough Riders films did not usually have singing like many other B-westerns of the day (such as a Roy Rogers or Gene Autry film). However, Dave O'Brien croons the song "Little Tenderfoot" and it's pretty sweet and enjoyable.