"Trail of the Silver Spurs" was an another entry in the "Range Busters" series from Monogram starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan, John "Dusty" King and Max "Alibi" Terhune. I found the story confusing although one is never certain if they are seeing the complete version of the film.
The boys are undercover marshals in search of a character known only as "The Jingler" (I. Stanford Jolley). Its not made clear why they are after him in the beginning. They are supposed to be prospectors. The only "disguise" employed is the fact that they are NOT riding their regular horses, but ARE wearing their usual hero/sidekick wardrobe.
Anyway, they arrive in Bottleneck, a former mining town now a ghost town. Mysterious characters lurk about. Dan Nordick (Milburn Morante) and his daughter Nancy (Dorothy Short) are the only survivors from the mining days. But "The Jingler" (so named for his "jingling" silver spurs) is for some reason, hiding out in the basement of the hotel and has tried to drive the Nordick's away. Also lurking about is a mysterious gunman (George Chesebro).
At any rate they all take sots at the Range Busters and each other. The boys befriend the Nordicks and Crash and Dusty take turns romancing Nancy while Alibi hauls out his dummy "Elmer".
Alibi decides to help out the Nordicks by planting gold nuggets (which he just happens to have), in the old mine. Through the generous use of stock footage, a gold rush is started and the town is reborn with miners (and automobiles). When the scheme is exposed, the miners file out of town as quickly as they had come (again courtesy of stock footage) and we are back to a ghost town again. Then we find out the real reason why the Jingler is hiding out and the mysterious Gunman is lurking about.
Both Corrigan and Terhune had been members of The Three Mesquiteers at Republic in the 30s. Corrigan was a likable sort but was never a great actor. Terhune made an amiable sidekick and his scenes with "Elmer" were always entertaining. John King had been a big band singer and had a good voice. He got to sing a couple of songs in this one.
Filmed (except of course for the stock footage) at Corrigan's ranch, "Corriganville".
