The Avenging Rider

This cowboy film features the great Tim Holt in a fast-paced tale of murder, gold theft and frame-up. Holt, along with his pal Ukelele Ike works to clear his name and catch his ex-partners killer ..... and exact some frontier justice !

Tim Holt was a real life WWII hero, whose career was interrupted for a few years. I have always preferred his post-war work, but this film is very good. Holt could act, and was always on top of his game in these westerns.

In many ways, this film will appeal to fans of classic shoot-em-ups..... with action, humor and actors who can actually act ! Enjoy!

Holt and Edwards, partners in a gold mine with a friend named Sam Trotter, are framed for Trotter's murder. Well, truth be told, the dopes are tricked into a murder charge by the real killers, who convince the duo that they work for Trotter and the posse following them are bandits. Tim (as Brit Marshall) and Ike (as Ike) bust out of jail to clear their names and recover their grubstake.

The likeable Tim holt is saddled up with Cliff Edwards who is an amusing sidekick in this entertaining B-western, which is still standard issue. Plenty of gunplay and hard riding. I like how the plot twists and turns with Holt and Edwards action incriminating themselves with their actions.

The Avenging Rider is Tim Holt's last B western for RKO before going off to war and his last with Cliff Edwards as a sidekick. In the interim RKO groomed another cowboy star to take his place and if William Wellman hadn't spotted him and used him in The Story Of GI Joe, Robert Mitchum might well have been a B picture cowboy hero who may have gone on to television if he was lucky in the Fifties. As it was Mitchum did bigger things and Holt returned to the B western for RKO with occasional performances in other classics like My Darling Clementine and The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre.

Holt and Edwards are coming to check on a grubstake Tim gave a friend and when they arrive the friend has been shot to death and these two are rather stupidly taken in by the outlaws who did the deed. When the law catches up with them, it's Tim and Cliff that are holding the bag and they spend the whole film getting captured and escaping from sheriff Karl Hackett and his dim bulb of a deputy Earl Hodgins.

The four outlaws led by Norman Willis form an alliance with crooked banker and saloon owner Davison Clark for him to store the stolen gold in his bank vault. Clark cuts up a five of spades from a deck of cards with the four getting a corner spade and him keeping the middle. It acts as a kind of claim check for the gold.

The outlaws keep getting killed, but as they do there are no witnesses left to clear Tim and Cliff. It's a race against time to clear them, find the stolen gold and it's all tied up with those spades they keep finding on the outlaws as they and the law catch up with them.

The Avenging Rider has a little more plot than usually found in a B western. It was a good film for Tim Holt to leave for the Armed Forces with.

Tim Holt stars as Brit Marshall, along with his sidekick, Ike (Cliff "Ukele Ike" Edwards) who provides a continuous stream of comic relief in this 55 minute western. It's a pleasant film that includes the usual gunplay and chases on horseback.

The Sheriff mistakes the two good guys for part of a murderous band of thieves. The two go on the lam to prove their innocence.

Holt's presence as the principled, rugged hero sometimes commands the screen with a John Wayne-like confidence.

When a Pal of Tim Holt and Cliff Edwards is killed and bullion from his gold mine stolen, Tim and Cliff are jailed for it. They escape and go in pursuit of the murderers, with only pieces of a torn-up five of Spades as a clue, in a background of a town where a gambling house is facing off some bluenoses who want it shut down.

This is one of the half dozen B Westerns that Holt shot for RKO as placeholders for RKO to keep his series going while he enlisted for the Second World War and won some well-deserved medals.Cliff Edwards offers some card tricks and sings the unlikely "Minnie the Mountain Moocher."

It was directed by Sam Nelson, whose last directorial effort this was. He returned to a career as assistant director, where he worked on such movies as SPARTACUS and A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING.... so it's not like he missed the top spot.

It's not the best of the Holt Bs, but like them all, always watchable.