Roaring Rangers

The town is getting a station on the rail road, but there's a lot of lawlessness in town, and sheriff Jack Rockwell can't get a handle on it -- he doesn't know that his own brother is in cahoots with Edmund Cobb to drive the ranchers out and acquire their land. But his son, Mickey Kuhn, knows what to do: he writes the Durango Kid in Texas -- that's all of the address. So a few days later, Charles Starrett and Smiley Burnette mosey into town, trying for a job as deputies.... but Rockwell expects to be impeached. So while the Durango Kid goes around threatening people if they sign the petition to get rid of Rockwell, Ted Mapes disguises himself as the Kid to hold up stagecoaches and drive the ranchers into bankruptcy.

It's a typically competent flicker out of Columbia's B Western unit, with a good story, competent performance, Burnette's clowning, and even Merle Travis as the guitar player in the band that's around whenever Burnette wants to sing. Fans of B Westerns will enjoy themselves.

When Sheriff Jeff Connor of Powder River cannot stop the crime wave, his young son, Larry, writes to the Durango Kid for aid. Taggart, the saloon owner, is the secret head of the outlaws, while Connor's brother Bill is in cahoots with him. Steve Randall, the Durango Kid, and his pal, Smiley Butterbean, arrive in time to stop a stagecoach holdup, and Steve is made a deputy sheriff. Taggart has one of his men, Slade, pose as the Durango Kid and while he is speaking to the townspeople, the rest of the outlaw gang pillages the town, and this somewhat damages the Durango Kid in the eyes of Larry and his sister Doris. Steve suggests that Sheriff Connor visit the government about a railroad project, and Taggart instructs Slade and the gang leader to kill Connor on his trip back.

A fairly standard Durango Kid entry with nothing really setting it apart from the others, but it's hard not to be entertained by the Durango kid and Smiley Burnette. Some of the songs are ok, placed in the right places and not getting in the way of the action.