The Unknown Ranger

Red Ryder returns to Sioux City, Wyoming, at the close of the Spanish-American War, settling down at the ranch of his aunt, The Duchess, with his pals Little Beaver and "Blizzard". But Red soon discovers that the country is over-run by rustlers.

Bill Tracy is a Cattleman's Protective Association agent. Working undercover on his way to Sonora, a town dominated by rustlers, saves Betty Carter from a situation, but her rancher father, believing Blackie's suggestion that Bill is a rustler, forbids her to see him. Bill and his pal Heinie Schmaltz rescue each other from rustlers' various plots and ambushes and eventually discover that Blackie, Carter's foreman, is the leader of the rustlers.

A notorious Mexican bandit goes all soft and mushy when he falls for a beautiful senorita. Warner Bros.' Captain Thunder contains some of the darndest Mexican accents you've ever heard in your life. The star is Hungarian-born Victor Varconi, portraying a legendary south of the border outlaw who tries to force Canadian senorita Fay Wray to marry a rival rustler whom she despises. She pleads with the bandito so pathetically that he is moved to grant her a single wish. Without hesitation she chooses her poor but true love. The bandit king, being a somewhat honorable fellow grants the wish and without a twitch, guns down the wicked cattle thief. Fortunately the film was played for comedy, a wise decision since it probably would have garnered laughs as a straight drama anyway.

Fanning has his men rustle horses and then blame it on a wild horse named Wildfire. Happy and Alkali arrive and immediately get into trouble with Fanning and his men. When Alkali is shot, Happy catches the outlaws but the Judge not only releases them, he discharges the Sheriff and tries to arrest Happy for rustling. Happy escapes and he and the Sheriff then set out to prove who the real rustlers are.

Johnny Mack Brown stars in the formula oater Shadows on the Range. The film was made at a time when Monogram was experimenting with the notion of passing Brown off as a singing cowboy. While his voice is dubbed, he's definitely handling all the action sequences himself, and that's what the fans really wanted.