Bordertown Gun Fighters

Cameo Shelby is running a crooked lottery out of El Paso and treasury agent Bill Elliott has been sent to break it up. When Bill intercepts a shipment of tickets to New Mexico he forces Shelby to send incriminating papers in the next shipment. Bill captures these also and now has the evidence he needs to go after Shelby.

Border town gunfighter is another fast-paced Republic Pictures western featuring Wild Bill Elliott and Gabby Hayes. In this rather routine western they take on a lottery swindle gang headed by Cameo Shelby and Roy Barcroft and the usual challenges . While it isn't the most standout story or as engaging as the other Wild Bill entries, it still ticks the boxes as far as being entertaining.

It was quite surprising to see Harry Woods in the role of a good guy marshal instead of the heavy he played along with Roy Barcroft in a dozen or so other westerns. Anne Jeffreys is always a pleasure to watch no matter the size of the part. Gordon Nance, as usual was cast as Wild Bill something or other, an identity crisis he assumed in earlier films where he was Wild Bill Saunders, then Wild Bill Hickock. Although, he was alleged to have been a quick draw artist, and often wore his hardware backwards, the notion became incongruous. This sorry portrayal was even further clouded by raising his six gun over his head and wildly throwing his arm towards the intended target. Perhaps that's where he derived his "Wild Bill" calling card. Good old matinee fare for those that miss it.

Wild Bill Elliott now riding the range as one of the stable of Republic Studio cowboy heroes is an undercover Treasury man in Bordertown Gun Fighters. Relations between the State of Texas and the territory of New Mexico are deteriorating rapidly because of a crooked Texas state lottery run out of El Paso by saloon owner Ian Keith.

Local law enforcement has been unable to cope with the problem of worthless tickets flooding New Mexico with pre-determined Texas winners on the other side of the state line. So the Treasury steps in with agent Bill Elliott and sidekick Gabby Hayes working with sheriff Harry Woods to bring down the gang.

The surprise here is Woods who in 95% of his films is always a bad guy, usually a fine western heavy. The classically trained Ian Keith best known for playing Octavian in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra, adds some nice bearing for his role as villain.

Anne Jeffreys is in the cast as Keith's innocent niece who sings in his gambling palace, but also helps bring him down. Gabby who Woods is constantly putting down actually finds key evidence quite accidentally though.

Nice B western which moves at a good clip. Elliott's Republic Pictures seem to be less violent than the ones he would do later on.