Salt Lake Raiders

There's a bit more tension in the plot as Rocky and co. are in a ghost town looking for money. The villain of the piece, Roy Barcroft, and his gang of outlaws are keeping them prisoner until they find the gold. I am a sucker for ghost town, and there's a plenty of atmosphere. The hero comes across resourceful and always thinks on his feet.

In Salt Lake Raiders Allan Lane is once again a US Marshal on the trail of recently escaped Myron Healey who swears he was framed for the murder of the bank president of Silver City and being part of the infamous Condor gang who robbed the bank. Martha Hyer is the daughter of the late president who once loved Healey but now wants him dead. Only Eddy Waller who runs the Stagecoach line believes Healey.

But all of them wind up prisoners of the Condors, brothers Roy Barcroft and Clifton Young and assorted henchmen. They're all being held at the now deserted Silver City until Healey comes up with the loot. Problem is that Healey was framed and doesn't know anything.

In addition to the usual gunplay and western action, Salt Lake Raiders has a lot of tension in it as the resourceful Rocky Lane has to think very fast on his feet. The Condors are mean, brutish and nasty, but definitely not stupid. There's also a real weasel of a lawyer played by Byron Foulger who has a role in all this.

So far this is one of Allan Lane's best Republic features and a must for his fans.

One of my favorite Saturday matinée heroes is Alan Rocky Lane and his horse, Blackjack. The viewer can expect to see a lot of action in any Rocky Lane move and this one is no exception. Usually the stories for the Rocky Lane westerns were well written without becoming too complicated for a juvenile audience. The story for "Salt Lake Raiders," however, tends to ramble and one suspects it was stretched out to cover an approximately one hour-time slot. The story would have been much better whittled down to about 30 minutes, which would have made for a very good TV show. The interplay between Rocky and Nugget Clark is as good as ever. I could never quite understand why Rocky and Nugget were re-introduced in each Rocky Lane movie. But this also tends to be believable in most instances. Roy Barcroft is on hand as usual as the meanest of the bad guys, a part he played so well. Blackjack does his thing as he usually does in any Rocky movie and Rocky appears in his usual undercover marshal guise. The viewer may also wonder where the title "Salt Lake Raiders" comes from since most of the movie takes place in and around a ghost town, but then most of the Saturday matinée cowboy movies have titles that have very little to do with the story, at times no more than a title to one of the songs in the movie if it is a singing cowboy picture. I highly recommend any Rocky Lane movie to those who like this type of entertainment.