The 8th and final film in "Lash" La Rue's series for producer Jerry Thomas and Producers Releasing Corporation. This one finds the overworked U. S. Marshal "Cheyenne" Davis ("Lash" La Rue) ordered to take a vacation by his boss. Naturally, his sidekick "Fuzzy" Jones (Al St. John), who may or may have been a certified U. S. Marshal himself, knows the perfect place to go on a vacation...the El Lobo Ranch.
Once there, whatever vacation-delights the El Lobo Ranch may have once offered are no longer in sight and one has suspicions about the credentials of the travel agent Fuzzy consulted. El Lobo ranch looks like a condo-swap south of Laredo. Cheyenne and Fuzzy are greeted by ranch-foreman Buck McCord (John Merton) who, rudely like, tells them to hit the trail.
They hit the trail for town--just a film-cut and a short-gallop insert away---and meet saloon-owner Fay Wilkins (Nancy Gates, biding her time at PRC between the end of her RKO days and better work elsewhere)and she tells them some local gossip concerning the El Lobo Ranch (former dude-ranch vacation resort, if Fuzzy's travel agent is believed.) Seems that the present owner, Wayne Dawson (George Chesebro), was seen talking to a stranger one day, and the stranger has disappeared and has never been seen again. From this little tidbit of information, "Cheyenne" deduces that the stranger was none other than the original owner Wayne Dawson (Marshall Reed)whom the current owner known as Wayne Dawson killed and has hidden the body. This is a pivotal point and comes as no surprise to most of us in the front-row to learn that George Chesebro was impersonating a dead man...who got dead because George Chesebro killed him.
Knowing something and proving it are two different animals so, in order to get the goods on the fake Wayne Dawson, "Cheyenne" hires an actor named Delhaven (Lee Morgan)to go out to the El Lobo Ranch and pretend he is the murdered man's brother, Matt Dawson, and ask Dawson to produce a certain belt that his supposed brother always wore. (Back off...we mentioned the plot has a few holes,including the thought that Lee Morgan could actually impersonate an actor.)
Marshall Reed appears again as a cabin-henchman, a character that has no relation to the character he played for a few frames earlier in the film, but Reed was there on a Day-contract and producer Jerry Thomas was never known not to get a full day's work out of Day-Contract players, even if they had to play two (or more) characters.
Well, no need to report, the exposure scheme cooked up by "Lash" semi-works but not before Chesebro and henchie friends provide "Lash" with a working vacation.
Nancy Gates moves this'un up a couple of notches on the "Lash" La Rue PRC meter-ratings, but the plot takes those and another four points away.
Once there, whatever vacation-delights the El Lobo Ranch may have once offered are no longer in sight and one has suspicions about the credentials of the travel agent Fuzzy consulted. El Lobo ranch looks like a condo-swap south of Laredo. Cheyenne and Fuzzy are greeted by ranch-foreman Buck McCord (John Merton) who, rudely like, tells them to hit the trail.
They hit the trail for town--just a film-cut and a short-gallop insert away---and meet saloon-owner Fay Wilkins (Nancy Gates, biding her time at PRC between the end of her RKO days and better work elsewhere)and she tells them some local gossip concerning the El Lobo Ranch (former dude-ranch vacation resort, if Fuzzy's travel agent is believed.) Seems that the present owner, Wayne Dawson (George Chesebro), was seen talking to a stranger one day, and the stranger has disappeared and has never been seen again. From this little tidbit of information, "Cheyenne" deduces that the stranger was none other than the original owner Wayne Dawson (Marshall Reed)whom the current owner known as Wayne Dawson killed and has hidden the body. This is a pivotal point and comes as no surprise to most of us in the front-row to learn that George Chesebro was impersonating a dead man...who got dead because George Chesebro killed him.
Knowing something and proving it are two different animals so, in order to get the goods on the fake Wayne Dawson, "Cheyenne" hires an actor named Delhaven (Lee Morgan)to go out to the El Lobo Ranch and pretend he is the murdered man's brother, Matt Dawson, and ask Dawson to produce a certain belt that his supposed brother always wore. (Back off...we mentioned the plot has a few holes,including the thought that Lee Morgan could actually impersonate an actor.)
Marshall Reed appears again as a cabin-henchman, a character that has no relation to the character he played for a few frames earlier in the film, but Reed was there on a Day-contract and producer Jerry Thomas was never known not to get a full day's work out of Day-Contract players, even if they had to play two (or more) characters.
Well, no need to report, the exposure scheme cooked up by "Lash" semi-works but not before Chesebro and henchie friends provide "Lash" with a working vacation.
Nancy Gates moves this'un up a couple of notches on the "Lash" La Rue PRC meter-ratings, but the plot takes those and another four points away.