The Rough, Tough West

I always enjoy watching any film from the Durango Kid series. These simple, one hour, B&W formula westerns provide the good, old fashioned kind of movie entertainment that I enjoyed in the theaters, many years ago. I'm usually not a big fan of music in my westerns but this film featured some good musicians and singers such as Pee Wee King and his band plus Carolina Cotton. However, I never liked Smiley Burnett and, as usual, his songs do nothing except irritate me.

The plot is rather good as a former Texas Ranger decides that he is going to end up with total control of the only road that provides a path into and out of the town. Naturally, he will make it a toll road. The methods that he plans to use are illegal and an old sidekick of his in the Rangers comes to town, becomes the Marshall and has to go up against his old friend. The resolution of the plot is somewhat different than most of these type of movies and is both interesting and satisfying.

The Durango Kid arrives in a mining town in search of an old friend, only to find the man is now running the town and has become corrupt, which brings him to disguise himself as a masked stranger while exposing his old pal as the felon he is.

A better than average the Durango Kid entry boasts a good performance by Jock Mahoney as a power mad person - he plays him as a corrupt person but with some human feeling. He has a soft spot for a disabled boy, but he runs the town with an iron fist and has thugs that make things worse. There's plenty of action, the highlight being a blazing building and some nail biting situations. Smiley doesn't take over the film like he does in other entries.

Charles Starret is the Durango Kid, this time as local sheriff, appointed by his former Ranger buddy Jack Mahoney. Jock Mahoney, Smiley Burnette and Caroline Cotton co-star. Also, Pee Wee King and Tommy Ivo have small roles.

Jack Mahoney has a scheme to fleece the local miners and marry the saloon songbird. He enlists the Durango Kid, his former Ranger buddy to serve as local sheriff in order to control the miners and the local newspaper publisher. This deviates from earlier fare as it features several songs by Burnette, Cotton and Pee Wee King.

Well produced and directed. Many scenes shot at Iverson Ranch in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. The print is excellent as is the sound.

Western fans will enjoy.