Vigilante Hideout

Rocky, a Range Detective, arrives to help Nugget with rustlers. When he learns Nugget owns only three cows, he stays on anyway and soon becomes involved in Benson's attempt to blow open the bank's safe....

Unusual Rocky Lane western, but the direction is a little flat and it's not so involving as others. It's like a mystery, with some interesting characters, particularly Eddie Waller (Nugget) as an inventor with three cows! Lacks action, however it has a good climax with a wagon chase which reminds me of Ben Hur chariot race and the dynamite in the mine. Not the best Allan Lane entry, but Rocky and Eddie Waller make it watchable.

Those under one hour chain made westerns were used since the thirties by poverty row companies such as Republic, Monogram, PRC, Chesterfield, Tiffany, Majestic, Mayfair...Not only westerns but also comedies, mystery yarns, dramas.... Useless to say that the stories were more or less all alike. You have to be a die hard western fan to endure this stuff. Republic pictures produced rather enjoyable movies, because this studio had the serial experience, "laboratory" experience in terms of action, editing, pace in a bland story, a boring scheme. This one makes no exception. It is a good example of what I try to explain.

Range detective Rocky Lane arrives in town to help Nugget Clark's rustling problem, even though Nugget has only 3 cows. Rocky also learns the other real problem in town is the lack of a water supply, which Nugget is trying to tap using dynamite to test for vibrations where water might be. The town also has raised $20,000 for a fund to build an aqueduct which is stored in the bank vault. This gives Benson, express operator, an idea to use an abandoned mine that leads directly under the bank and Nugget's dynamite to blow a hole underneath so the crooks can make off with the funds. Rocky tries to piece together the rustling of Nugget's cattle, the actions of Muley Price and his gang, as well as the charges that he is responsible for the recent troubles and robberies in town. This western did have original ideas but they weren't fleshed out as well as they could have been, especially not getting into the crux of the story til the halfway mark and with characters whose purpose doesn't carry that far into the story. Perennial Rocky Lane villain Roy Barcroft seems to disappear halfway through the film and the idea of the heroine's father being a former crook wasn't utilized very well. The highlight of the film is really the things Nugget invents (just for the sake of saying he was able to invent them) such as a perpetual motion machine, a voice recorder, horseless carriage, plus many more but thinking they will never have any practical purpose. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.