RENEGADES OF THE RIO GRANDE
(director: Howard Bretherton; screenwriters: Andre Lamb/story by Oliver Drake; cinematographer: Maury Gertsman; editor: Edward Curtiss; music: Paul Sawtell; cast: Rod Cameron (Buck Emerson), John James (Johnny Emerson), Eddie Dew (Ranger Cal Benedict), Fuzzy Knight (Ranger Trigger Bidwell), Jennifer Holt (Dolores Salezar), Ray Whitley (Tex Henry), Glenn Strange (Bart Drummond), Dick Alexander (Pete Jackson), Iris Clive (Maria), Edmund Cobb (Karl Holbrook), Roy Butler (Sheriff), The Bar Six Cowboys; Runtime: 58; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Oliver Drake; Universal Pictures; 1946-in B/W)
“Routine B-Western.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Howard Bretherton (“The Monster and the Ape”/”One-round Hogan”) efficiently directs the routine B-Western, filmed in Black-and-White, with plenty of fistfights and Mexican range songs like “Down An Old Spanish Trail,” courtesy of The Bar Six Cowboys and the ranch foreman played by Ray Whitley.
It’s based on the story by Oliver Drake and is scripted by Andre Lamb.
On the trail, outside Vista Grande, the Texas Rangers, Cal Benedict (Eddie Dew) and Trigger Bidwell (Fuzzy Knight), witness a gunfight between the gang of Bart Drummond (Glenn Strange) and the Emerson brothers, in which they shoot Johnny Emerson (John James) and hold his older brother Buck (Rod Cameron) captive.
While dying, Johnny tells the Rangers who find him by the shootout scene, that he was with the gang when they robbed the bank but when he saw them kill the owner of the Rancho Rio Lido, his friend Salezar, he turned against the gang and hid the stolen money. He gives Buck a map of where he hid the loot, who hides the map in Drummond’s gun holster, hoping to return the money to the deceased’s daughter Dolores Salezar (Jennifer Holt).
The Rangers that night sneak into the gang’s hideout and try to rescue Buck, but he flees after they free him. Buck hides in the ranch home of Dolores, and is helped to escape by her for being John’s brother (who used to work on the ranch).
Meanwhile Dolores’ sleazy ranch hand, Pete Jackson (Richard Alexander), is secretly working with the gang to spy on the Salezar ranch, and leads Dolores into being captured by the gang.
The gang member Karl (Edmund Cobb) gets arrested by the Rangers, but with the gang’s help escapes, only to be re-captured by the Rangers on the trail and tricked into exposing the gang to the Rangers and a rescue posse.
There’s a happy ending thanks to the efforts of the Rangers. No surprises here. This one is strictly for fans of the Western oldies, who like their Westerns where the bad guys are caught in the end.
The most colorful line has one of the bank robbers say when told where Buck hid the map: “Well, I’m a cross-eyed horn toad.” Dang, if that doesn’t say it all.
REVIEWED ON 11/14/2024 GRADE: B-
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