The Mysterious Avenger (1936)
Directed by David Selman
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Synopsis by Hans J. Wollstein
In his second of an unprecedented 131 Westerns for Columbia Pictures, handsome Charles Starrett donned his trademark white Stetson to portray Ranny Maitland, a Texas Ranger whose father (Lafe Mckee) is feuding with his neighbor, Lockhart (Edward Le Saint. Pretending to be on Lockhart's side in the feud, Ranny goes to investigate. Old man Maitland, meanwhile, is murdered and Lockhart arrested. Evidence found in Maitland's safe points to ranch foremen Brophy (Wheeler Oakman and Gilman (Dick Botiller), foremen of the respective ranches, as the culprits but the documents also incriminates Lockhart's son Lafe (Charles Locher). Believing Lafe to be innocent, Ranny organizes a posse to capture the foremen and the film concludes in a gigantic (for Columbia Pictures) battle at Blockade Canyon. Handsome young Charles Locher, in one of his earliest featured roles, later changed his name to Jon Hall and starred in escapist melodramas at Universal. As she had in Starrett's first Western for Columbia, brunette Joan Perry once again played the heroine, this time the daughter of the opposing rancher. Perry later married her boss, feared (and foul-mouthed) Columbia studio czar Harry Cohn.
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Keywords
bad-guy, cattle, cowboy, father, good-guy, ranch, rustler, son