Synopsis:
FIGHTING CARAVANS: One of the first big-budget Westerns, FIGHTING CARAVANS stars Gary Cooper as the brave Clint Belmet, a traveller on a cross-country freight train. He convinces a fellow traveller...
FIGHTING CARAVANS: One of the first big-budget Westerns, FIGHTING CARAVANS stars Gary Cooper as the brave Clint Belmet, a traveller on a cross-country freight train. He convinces a fellow traveller (Lily Damita) on a westbound caravan to pose as his wife to help disguise him, then saves the caravan from an Indian attack. And falls in love, of course.
WEST OF THE PECOS: A young Robert Mitchum stars as Pecos Smith in this classic Western, adapted from a novel by Zane Grey. Chicago tycoon Col. Lamberth (Thurston Hall) is prescribed a vacation by his doctor, so he heads out to his hacienda with his feisty daughter, Rill (Barbara Hale). En route to Texas, Rill is accosted by some roughnecks and decides to pass herself off as a boy. Subsequently, father and daughter witness the murder of a stagecoach driver (Bill Williams), a crime for which Pecos is blamed, while the true perpetrator is Brad Sawtelle (Harry Woods). After Pecos helps out the travelers, Rill convinces her father to hire him and his Irish-Mexican sidekick, Chito. Pecos soon finds out Rill's true gender and the two fall in love, but Sawtelle still has a bone to pick, and by the time they reach the hacienda a full-fledged war has broken out.
WAGON WHEELS: WAGON WHEELS, a B-movie version of FIGHTING CARAVANS, stars Randolph Scott as the heroic Belmet, who fights off the attacks of the nefarious Murdoch (Monte Blue), and wins the heart of the girl (Gail Patrick).
NEVADA: One of Robert Mitchum's first starring roles, this classic Western sees the star filling in for Tim Holt, who was fighting in WWII. Holt's sidekick Chito (Richard Martin) was assigned to Mitchum, who plays Jim "Nevada" Lacy. The pair has just won $7000 gambling and makes a run for it, pursued by the casino's owners. Meanwhile, wealthy investor Ben Ide is on his way out West to buy $7000 worth of mining equipment, but is murdered en route by Cash Burridge (Craig Reynolds) and robbed of his money. Unfortunately for Nevada, he stumbles upon the body, and is discovered just as he is inspecting it; the fact that he is in possession of 7000 "yellowbacks" further corroborates his guilt. Now, Nevada must clear his name fast, before Burridge succeeds in his efforts to get the townspeople to lynch him! Displaying many tropes of the genre, such as a moralistic ending, back projection, and a hero impervious to bullets, this is a classic example of the early days of B-movie Westerns.
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