Wild Horse Stampede

The Trail Blazers (Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson) are sent by the governor to investigate problems in a western town that seem to be slowing down the progress on the railroad. Why would anyone want to keep out the railroad and progress? Well, Hoot and Ken get to the bottom of this in this very competent but not especially remarkable B-western.

In the decade before "Wild Horse Stampede" was made, Ken Maynard had been a big-name cowboy and Hoot Gibson was still a big act after more than two decades in the business. Now, in the latter portion of their careers, the two weren't quite as big a draw on their own and Monogram decided to pair them in order to attract a wider audience--something that had already been done with other team westerns (such as the more successful Three Mesquiteer films). All of them had VERY standard sorts of plots involving mean bosses trying to control the territory and the like. Nothing uncomplicated or unusual--just the usual films that kids loved on Saturday mornings back in the day. While I will quickly acknowledge that the films are not great, I like how they did NOT have singing and the characters were quite likable...like a comfortable old pair of jeans.