Where Trails Divide

Tom Keene takes the stage to Rawhide. He plans to open the first law office in town and surprise his kid brother, David Sharpe. When robbers try to take the coach he's on, Keene stops them single-handedly. When he gets to town, he finds that Warner Richmond, controls the town. He suspects Richmond of running more than a saloon and dance hall and hopes that his brother isn't involved in it.

It's another decent albeit randomly titled western from Monogram. There's a lot of subtextual issues about brothers in the script by Robert Emmett Tansey, but director Robert Bradbury doesn't lean on it heavily enough to spoil the fun. DP Bert Longenecker adjusts the frame size with blocking throughout, and there's a nicely shot final sequence in Death Valley to make the audience ooh and ah.

Keene was an ambitious cowboy star in that he was interested in acting and would take breaks from Gower Gulch for stage work. He also refused to establish a particular look or persona, nor was he a two-fisted character. This meant he never cracked the top tier. However, he seems to have done well in his real estate investments and was well enough regarded that he was honorary mayor of Sherman Oaks in 1939.