''Bullets for Bandits'' is a 1942 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by Wallace W. Fox, starring

Wild Bill Elliott Wild Bill Elliott (born Gordon Nance, October 16, 1904 – November 26, 1965) was an American film actor. He specialized in playing the rugged heroes of B Westerns, particularly the Red Ryder series of films. Early life Elliott was born Gor ...

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...

, and Frank Mitchell.

Plot

Queen Katey is the owner of a large ranch. There is the beginning of a movement among the local homesteaders to drive Katey out, so that her land can be divided. Queen has a long-lost son, Prince, who she sends one of her ranch hands, Cannonball, to find. Cannonball arrives at the office of the Badlands County sheriff, Tex Martin. Cannonball explains to Tex that Prince has the letters "KT" on his forearm, where they had been branded when he was a youth by a man named Clem Jeter. Tex thinks he's seen that brand, and directs Cannonball to the saloon. While Cannonball is still on his way, Wild Bill Hickok is at the bar in the saloon. He observes a man who he could be the double for, playing cards. As he watches, he sees his double cheating, eventually taking all of another gambler's money. The double is Prince Katey. When Hickok confronts Prince and demands he return the other gambler's money, Prince draws on Hickok, but Hickok is faster and guns down Prince. Right after the gunfight, Cannonball enters the saloon and mistakes Hickok for Prince. He hustles Hickok out of the saloon, afraid that he might be charged with murder. As the two men ride off, Tex arrives at the bar and checks the body of the dead man. In so doing he discerns that Prince had been shot twice, once by Hickok, and another shot which entered his back. Tex realizes that it was the shot in the back which actually killed Prince. As they ride off, Cannonball lets Hickok know that he thinks he is Prince, and that Prince's mother needs his help in holding off a land grab by Jeter. Jeter is instigating the homesteaders in an attempt to run Queen Katey off her land. Understanding Queen's predicament, he agrees to accompany Cannonball to the ranch, playing along with the mistaken identity. They arrive at the ranch, where Queen accepts Hickok as her prodigal son. As they head to the Katey ranch, Beetle, the man who shot Prince in the back, arrives at Jeter's cabin, where he informs him of the demise of the Katey heir. With what he feels his final roadblock taken care of, Jeter rides off and gets a court order appointing him as Queen's guardian. However, when he arrives at the Katey ranch to serve the order, he is dumbfounded to find Prince (he assumes) alive and well. When Jeter demands that Hickok prove he is Prince, the two men fight, and Jeter is thrown off the ranch. Jeter confronts Beetle, who is adamant that Prince is dead, so this man must be an imposter. Meanwhile, Tex has set off after Cannonball and Hickok. He comes upon the burnt out ranch of the Brown's, Dakota and her father Bert. They tell him that it was Queen who burned down their house, in an attempt to drive them out of the county. As he is having dinner with the Browns, Jeter arrives and tells Tex that the man who killed Prince is posing as him at the Katey ranch. At the ranch, Queen realizes that Hickok is not Prince, and tells him that it has been Jeter who has been terrorizing the local homesteaders, including the arson at the Brown ranch, and blaming his actions on Queen. Hickok pledges to help Queen withstand Jeter's plan. When Tex arrives, he asks Hickok to turn himself in, which Hickok agrees to do, just later at the Brown's ranch. When Tex arrives at the Brown's ranch, someone takes a shot at him, which misses. He takes off after his assailant, but in doing so runs into Hickok. Initially he thinks it was Hickok who fired the shot, but when he sees that Hickok is free of soot, which would have been present if he had been hiding at the Brown's ranch to waylay him, he realizes that it wasn't Hickok. The two take off trying to track down the man who fired at Tex. The next morning, Hickok arrives back at the Katey ranch. There he finds Jeter and his men waiting for him. Jeter accuses Hickok of murder. Queen pulls a gun and a conflict ensues wherein Cannonball manages to ride off for help. Hickok and Queen manage to gain the ranchhouse, where they manage to hold off Jeter and his gang until Cannonball returns with Tex and Dakota. The bad guys are captured, and Dakota agrees to move in with Queen and look after her and the ranch.

Cast

as Wild Bill Hickok/Prince Katey *

as Tex Martin * Frank Mitchell as Cannonball * Dorothy Short as Dakota Brown * Ralph Theodore as Clem Jeter *

Edythe Elliott Edythe Elliott (born Edythe Fletcher; July 14, 1886 – April 9, 1978) was an American character actress active primarily during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Biography Edythe Elliott was born in San Francisco, California where her parents were ...

as Queen Katey *

Forrest Taylor Edwin Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 – February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films. Early years Taylor was born in Bl ...

as Bert Brown * Joe McGuinn as Beetle * Tom Moray as Whip *

Art Mix Art Mix (born George Washington Kesterson; June 18, 1896 – December 7, 1972), was an American character actor from the 1920s until the mid-1940s. Biography Prior to becoming an actor, Mix worked as a circus performer and a boxer. He initially ...

as Spur *

Hal Taliaferro Floyd Taliaferro Alderson (November 13, 1895 – February 10, 1980) was an American film actor who specialized in westerns. After serving in the Great War, he began his career in the era of silent films, when he frequently used the name Wally ...

as Drummer *

Eddie Laughton Eddie Laughton (20 June 190321 March 1952) was an American film actor. Laughton appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1952, and is best known for his work with The Three Stooges. Career Laughton's family immigrated to the United State ...

as Bartender

References

External links

{{Wallace Fox 1942 Western (genre) films 1940s American films 1940s English-language films American black-and-white films American Western (genre) films Columbia Pictures films Films directed by Wallace Fox