Other than the first film, 1940's "The Durango Kid," this entry in the series is the only other one that provides a reason for the existence of The Durango Kid...he just shows up with an established reputation in the others.
This time out, Steve Warren (Charles Starret)---the "Steve" character only had the same last-name in two films---is the local sheriff and is searching for the outlaw gang that is holding up the stages on the line owned by Nora Reed (Helen Parrish.) He captures one of the gang-members, Frank Reed (Russell Arms), Nora's brother and tosses him in jail. Frank's jail-stay is a short one as he is soon murdered. The town's crooked lawyer Garvey Yager (Lyle Talbot) and a surveyor named Alfred Murdock (George Eldredge) conspire to accuse Steve of the killing, and have him arrested and dismissed as the sheriff.
Steve escapes and goes after Murdock whom Smiley Burnette (Smiley Burnette, and he ain't playing Himself)had seen near the jail at the time of the murder. Yager and Murdock, actually the leaders behind the outlaw gang, are out to get Steve, whose father had once jailed them elsewhere. Martin Oaks (Ted Adams), the newly-appointed sheriff dupes none-too-bright Smiley into capturing Steve.
Steve escapes jail again and, in the guise of the Durango Kid, renews the pursuit and capture of Yager and Murdock.
As usual, in the Durango Kid series, lots of stock footage and music, ranging from good-to-bad ugly (depending on which one of his umpteen-thousand songs Smiley Burnette had written new lyrics to), and no explanation of how come no one ever finds Durango's horse Raider when he is tied up to a tree in the countryside, while Durango, as Steve, is riding his other horse, who, in this film, is a first-appearance chestnut cow pony named "Socks."