Serials usually spawned feature film versions, but with this film, it was the other way around. A 1932 Buck Jones Western, White Eagle was made into a serial nine years later, again starring Jones in the title role, a (supposedly) Native American Pony Express Rider defending his people against a gang of evil Whites.
Johnny Mack Brown was nearing the end of his starring career when he appeared in the Monogram oater Dead Man's Trail. Brown and his youthful sidekick Jimmy Ellison come to the aid of imperiled Barbara Allen. At this point, Johnny was too long in tooth and thick around the middle to qualify as a romantic lead, hence the presence of Ellison.
Christina, the daughter of a Greek-immigrant family who does not share their belief that a woman's place is with her husband at the fireside, is a trick-shot artist. With her Uncle Jim, a strolling troubadour, and his sidekick Andy, a mandolin player, heads west to make her fortune.
Seven masked bandits, whose chief calls himself "Mormon", kidnap young Susy, cousin of the mayor of Clayton City, Frank Clonny. Frank accepts the $15,000 ransom requested by the bandits and thinks of a plan which will permit him, with the help of Benson, the sheriff, to free his cousin, recover the money and capture the outlaws. The plan, though, is destined to fail, because one of the mayor's men, Donovan, allows the bandits to escape the trap. Benson then decides to call in Sartana, who the Mormon immediately tries to eliminate with the help of four killers: Buffalo, who kills with a bullwhip; Martinez, an expert knife thrower; Sullivan, a giant of incredible strength and Silky, a sly and fast gunslinger.
There is a feud of 30 years' standing between the Revelle and Wainwright families, dwelling in the Apache country, despite which Shirley, daughter of Martin Revelle, and Clem Wainwright fall in love. The lovers are discovered meeting by Clem's rival, Ben Larrago, who informs on them (Exhibitors Trade Review, 23rd May 1925).
When Billy Carson's uncle is lynched as a supposed rustler, Billy arrives looking for the murderers. He finds that Steve Kirby holds a forged note on his Uncle's ranch. When Kirby sees that Billy means trouble for him, he has him framed for murder. Then just as he is inciting the mob to lynch him, Billy's new friend Doc Jones is trying to break him out of jail.
The prospector enters the western dance hall, and upon seeing the gambler, takes a mallet and apparently kills the man. He is captured by the posse and as he is dangling from a tree tells the story of how, years before, he and Ben had been in Texas together, Ben fleecing Rube of all his savings, robbed him of his girl, and disappeared. As Rube is about to breathe his last word, a message comes to the effect that Ben has recovered. The posse cut Rube down and take him back. He discovers that the girl is still with Ben and is the mother of seven urchins. Ben tries to rid himself of this domestic burden, but Rube flees on his trick mule and has the last laugh on the gambler.
Despite past friendliness, cattle ranchers Tom and Jim Bledsoe, father and son, fence off their range to prevent its use by neighboring sheep ranchers Tug Wilson and Buck Rankin, suggesting that they hope to end their recent loss of cattle. Rankin (not Rankins) shoots Tug, who is unaware of Rankin's lawless activities, in an argument and Jim is accused of murder and also stampeding the sheep. Believing Jim is guilty, Tug's daughter, Ruth, aids Buck in capturing Jim, but he escapes. Ruth gets help from Sheriff Hank Bosley, and a sheepherder, Sanchez, reveals Rankin's responsibility for both the rustling of Bledsoe's cattle and the killing of Wilson.
A stray German shepherd, a runaway teenage boy, and a runaway teenage girl end up at her uncle's place in Oregon, where an epidemic of sheep rustling is under way.
Concern for her father, who is being slowly ruined by cattle rustling, prompts Mary Benson to do some investigating in a distant cattle town, where she briefly encounters drifters Oklahoma Adams and Sneezer Clark. They follow her back to Arizona, go to work on the Benson ranch, and discover the ranch foreman to be responsible for the rustling and the robbery of a rodeo box office.
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