The Fighting Renegade

Skilfully if unimaginatively made and minimally budgeted B western, which alienated Col. Tim's followers because he spends most of the picture doing a Speedy Gonzales character. He heads up his Devil Riders, complete with a Gaucho from the Pampas, singing a Men of the Prairie song and sorting out the local bad men.

Plot turns on stealing a diary written by the heroine's dad ("That Indian writing in there tells where a lot of buried treasure is hidden") and kidnapping her to translate. Usual shoot outs and chases, with some unsuitably jolly music playing under them. Tim does a fast draw and a leap into the saddle from a rock, along with his part of the horse riding and comes off quite plausibly but writing and production values are token.

Tim McCoy stars in this D western from a poverty row outfit called Victory Pictures headed by that noted King of the B film Sam Katzman. The sloppy editing and incoherent story trademarks of Katzman work is present in The Fighting Renegade.

As the story has it, McCoy plays cowboy hero Bill Carson, but here he's going by the name of notorious Mexican bandit El Puma. His accent is a cross between Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez and the Frito Bandito. I've heard some cheesy imitations before and one of McCoy's talents not was as an impressionist.

McCoy is keeping tabs on an archaeological expedition to seek out Aztec buried treasure and at the same time clear himself of a murder charge. That he's a fugitive is why McCoy is in disguise.

Tim McCoy had seen some much better days during the silent era and would again be doing at least a better grade of B westerns. This one is something I'm sure he would have liked buried.