''The Lone Hand'' is a 1953 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

George Sherman George Sherman (July 14, 1908 – March 15, 1991) was an American film director and producer of low-budget Western films. One obituary said his "credits rival in number those of anyone in the entertainment industry." Biography George Sherma ...

and starring

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

Barbara Hale Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series ''Perry Mason (1957 TV series), Perry Mason'' (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award f ...

and Alex Nicol.

Plot

Zachary Hallock moves to the town of Timberline with his son Josh to start a farm. In town, young Josh meets a boy named Daniel Skaggs who has an older sister, Sarah Jane. A shootout in the street results in the sheriff's death. A pair of brothers, Jonah and Gus Varden, are continuing their violent reign of terror throughout the region. Zack is broke. He works hard farming, but doesn't prosper. One day when Sarah Jane brings muffins and they get acquainted, she joins Zack and Josh on a visit to George Hadley's horse farm. Hadley offers to trade two horses for Zack's first grain harvest. Hadley strongly urges Zack to join the "Regulators," who try to maintain law and order the area with the sheriff dead. Zack declines, to his son's disappointment. Josh later sees the Vardens ambush and kill a Pinkerton's detective. Josh goes to get Zach and return to the scene of the shooting. Jonah was hiding nearby and overhears Zack order the boy not to report what he saw. Zack's wagon, carrying grain for Hadley, is waylaid by the Vardens, ruining the grain. Knowing now that Zack wants to marry Sarah Jane and is desperate for money, the Vardens approach him about joining them on a robbery. Zack agrees. Josh follows his father the day of the robbery and witnesses the crime. Zach returns to his farm with a new wagon and team of horses. He lies and tells Sarah, Daniel and Josh that he won the money needed to buy them in a card game. Sarah Jane marries Zach, but soon suspects his wrongdoing during his numerous nightly disappearances. Zack confesses that he is actually a Pinkerton's man himself, working undercover. He couldn't risk telling her, Josh, or the regulators, because he needed to find out who the ringleader was. Hadley is the true criminal ringleader and he kidnaps Josh. A fight develops and Zack is able to take care of Hadley and the remaining Varden brother. His original plan was to leave Timberline once his work was done, but Zack elects to keep the farm and make a family with Josh, Daniel and Sarah Jane.

Cast

as Zack Hallock *

as Sarah Jane Skaggs * Alex Nicol as Jonah Varden * Jim Arness as Gus Varden * Charles Drake as George Hadley *

Jimmy Hunt James Walter Hunt (born December 4, 1939) is an American actor.. He is perhaps best known for his role as David in '' Invaders from Mars'' (1953). In the 1986 remake of the same film he plays the police chief. Hunt has also appeared in films l ...

as Joshua Hallock / Narrator *

Roy Roberts Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones, March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen. Life and career Born in Tampa ...

as Mr. Skaggs *

Frank Ferguson Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1906 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish ...

as Mr. Dunn the Banker * Wesley Morgan as Daniel Skaggs *

Denver Pyle Denver Dell Pyle (May 11, 1920 – December 25, 1997) was an American film and television actor and director. He was well known for a number of TV roles from the 1960s through the 1980s, including his portrayal of Briscoe Darling Jr. in se ...

as Regulator (uncredited)

References

External links

* * * 1953 films American Western (genre) films 1953 Western (genre) films Films directed by George Sherman 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language Western (genre) films {{1950s-Western-film-stub