After Roy, Gene and Hoppy, one of the first 'B' Western stars I became familiar with was The Durango Kid, the masked avenger who came to right the wrongs against common folks on the Western plains. Charles Starrett was hired by Columbia Pictures to replace the aging Tim McCoy, and even though he didn't want to be typecast as a Western hero, Columbia kept up their options on Starrett because he was a lucrative draw. By 1952, Starret had set a longevity record with 131 'B' Westerns for the studio, mostly as The Durango Kid, and had reconciled his feelings about being a Western star.
In this, the first outing of "The Durango Kid", there's not a lot that resembles the series that began with "The Return Of The Durango Kid" some five years later in 1945. Because the character became so popular with young matinée fans of the era, the stories quickly traded interchangeable plots and added humorous sidekick characters like Dub Taylor and later, Smiley Burnette. And yet, there are elements here that became familiar staples as well, like the handful of songs performed, in this instance by Bob Nolan and The Sons of the Pioneers. If you're any kind of fan at all, you'll get a kick out of Pat Brady as one of the Sons of the Pioneers, keeping time to the music with a paint brush and landing in a water trough to keep things light. As for Bob Nolan himself, he has more prominent screen time in this film than any other Western I've seen crediting his group, to the point of impersonating 'Durango' when the situation calls for it.
As for the story itself, Bill Lowery (Starrett) returns home from an unexplained absence to find that homesteaders are being burned out and driven from their homes by a band of organized cattlemen led by villain Mace Ballard (Kenneth MacDonald). When his own father is murdered by a Ballard henchman, Lowery begins dropping hints about a night rider out of Texas known as the Durango Kid. When local Jamesburg marshal Trayboe (Melvin Lang) suspects a connection between the two, he hires on Lowery as a deputy to bring in the Kid. Obviously, he knew what he was doing, as Lowery/Durango manage to set up bad guy Ballard for his confession, and a happy ending to the story.
I'm surprised actually, that there aren't more postings for this film, as well as the meager number of IMDb votes for it. I've always considered the Durango Kid as a "B" Western staple character, along with the likes of Lash LaRue and Bill Elliott's Red Ryder. I would direct fans of Durango to some of the later pictures, memorable, at least for me, for featuring future TV Western heroes like Jock Mahoney and Clayton Moore in the role of villains. Hey, you can only have one Durango Kid!
In this, the first outing of "The Durango Kid", there's not a lot that resembles the series that began with "The Return Of The Durango Kid" some five years later in 1945. Because the character became so popular with young matinée fans of the era, the stories quickly traded interchangeable plots and added humorous sidekick characters like Dub Taylor and later, Smiley Burnette. And yet, there are elements here that became familiar staples as well, like the handful of songs performed, in this instance by Bob Nolan and The Sons of the Pioneers. If you're any kind of fan at all, you'll get a kick out of Pat Brady as one of the Sons of the Pioneers, keeping time to the music with a paint brush and landing in a water trough to keep things light. As for Bob Nolan himself, he has more prominent screen time in this film than any other Western I've seen crediting his group, to the point of impersonating 'Durango' when the situation calls for it.
As for the story itself, Bill Lowery (Starrett) returns home from an unexplained absence to find that homesteaders are being burned out and driven from their homes by a band of organized cattlemen led by villain Mace Ballard (Kenneth MacDonald). When his own father is murdered by a Ballard henchman, Lowery begins dropping hints about a night rider out of Texas known as the Durango Kid. When local Jamesburg marshal Trayboe (Melvin Lang) suspects a connection between the two, he hires on Lowery as a deputy to bring in the Kid. Obviously, he knew what he was doing, as Lowery/Durango manage to set up bad guy Ballard for his confession, and a happy ending to the story.
I'm surprised actually, that there aren't more postings for this film, as well as the meager number of IMDb votes for it. I've always considered the Durango Kid as a "B" Western staple character, along with the likes of Lash LaRue and Bill Elliott's Red Ryder. I would direct fans of Durango to some of the later pictures, memorable, at least for me, for featuring future TV Western heroes like Jock Mahoney and Clayton Moore in the role of villains. Hey, you can only have one Durango Kid!
