Ken Maynard comes to visit his banker father, only to find him dead of an apparent suicide and his bank looted. However, the suicide weapon is in the right-hand of a left-handed man. Maynard vows to bring the killers to justice, recover the town's money, and clear his father's good name.
The Lone Avenger is fast-paced fun, with loads of action and gun-play. However, the title is a bit of a misnomer, as Ken has a lot of help by the end of the picture, a neat, atmospheric final act in which Maynard and pals psyche out the villains in the midst of a driving nighttime thunderstorm.
One of the few real cowboys to get a picture contract, the salt-of-the-earth Maynard was the first singing western star (1929's The Wagon Master) and allegedly a mean SOB as well! Early on in the movie, he actually seems to be enjoying himself a little too much in a scene where his character orders a man to be dunked repeatedly into a water trough, until he apologizes for insulting his deceased dad!