Rustlers

Solid Holt-Martin programmer. Riding into town, the boys are looking for a job. Trouble is that rustlers have driven many local ranchers into penury, so no jobs for the guys. But who is this rustler gang and who's leading them. The guys, of course, get caught up in the struggle, but can they out- tough ranch girl Ruthie (Hyer) who keeps getting the drop on our heroes.

The plot's fairly standard with a mystery mastermind, a saloon, and lots of hard-riding. Naturally, Chito can't keep his mind on business with bar-girl Trixie (Andrews) wiggling around. Good thing no- nonsense Holt's on the case. So there's got to be some fast-shooting and a saloon bout of flying fists to spice things up. Plus, there's some pretty good scenery from what looks like the piney Big Bear area northeast of LA. At least it's not the cheaper scrublands of LA area. And catch the fiery showdown, more budget consuming than most. All in all, the programmer's nothing special, but workhorse director Selander does keep things moving, while our heroes are in fine form, as usual. Anyway, the results are sure good enough for this front-row geezer.

Tim Holt and his trusty sidekick Chito Rafferty hit the trail once again. This time they are mistaken for cattle rustler and arrested. They promptly escape from jail and then seek out the real cattle rustlers to clear their good names. It's the usual Tim Holt western nonsense, with Holt as too good of an actor for these western programers (though he was incredibly popular and certainly made good money, so I guess I can't blame him). The only thing to set this film apart from any number of other Holt westerns is a rather kinky scene where Holt spanks a before-she-was-famous Martha Hyer.

One thing I have to say on this particular Tim Holt western. As you can tell by the title it has to do with cattle rustling, not exactly an original theme in westerns. But these Rustlers have put a really different twist on the crime of cattle stealing.

The biggest problem in cattle rustling reasons saloon owner Frank Fenton and the payoff guy in the racket is that you have to move the cattle to market after you've changed the brands and sell them. It's the moving and changing that get you caught. So what these outlaws do is take the cattle and hold them for ransom. What the owner pays to get them back is pure profit without a lot of work.

Tim Holt and Richard Martin stumble into this racket when they get a hold of some marked bills that the ranchers marked in an effort to trap whoever is behind all this. These outlaws aren't dumb and they've got the best kind of resources.

The climax is a thrilling one where the outlaws have Tim Holt trapped in a burning building during a shootout. Very well staged by veteran B western director Lesley Selander.

One of Tim Holt's best westerns for RKO.

Adequate Lesley Selander western.

Tim Holt and partner don't rustle anything, but they are mistaken for bank robbers. They hightail it out of town.... with Martha Hyer's help. Meanwhile, gun-toting Lois Andrews makes life miserable for Tim.

If you think this movie is going to be better than it sounds, I've got some desert land in Florida I wanna sell you.

The Salt River Gang is hounding a group of Arizona ranchers. They are desperate to uncover the rustlers' identities. Dick McBride and Chito Rafferty get falsely jailed and they have to clear their names.

The spanking is funny and dated... and funny. The jail break is also fun. It's a functional B-western. There is some fine horsemanship and some passable stunts and functional shootouts. I'm not familiar with these actors but they seem to have good charisma. This is good for what it is.