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Universal, 1940. Directed by
Allan Dwan. Camera: Joseph Valentine. With Franchot
Tone, Warren
William, Broderick Crawford, Andy Devine, Mischa Auer, Porter Hall,
Peggy Moran, Samuel S. Hinds, Charles Trowbridge, Paul Fix, Harry
Cording, Max Wagner, Edmund MacDonald, Joe King, Earle Hodgins, Vic Potel,
George Chandler, Frank Brownlee, Bob McKenzie, Ralph Dunn, Duke York, Ray
Teal, Freddie Walburn, Lloyd Ingraham, George MacQuarrie, James Farley,
Eddie Cobb, Heinie Conklin, Lew Kelly, Ted Adams. |
"Kansas"
Tim Mason, a tenderfoot undercover agent from the East, is sent to
the rough and tumble frontier town of Peaceful Valley to investigate
the murder of a newspaper reporter. Kansas arrives to find
Sheriff Korley and his deputies embroiled in a saloon brawl with the
cowpuncher Swanee and his valet Meadows. When the lawmen rush
the saloon, Kansas sides with Swanee and Meadows, and the brawl is
finally stopped by the appearance of John Thornton, the cowpunchers'
boss and Mark Dawson, the head of the Cattlemen's Protective
Association.
Swanee and Meadows convince Thornton to
hire Kansas as well as Bolo, a Cossack cowboy, as cowhands, and they
all ride back to the ranch where Kansas meets Thornton's seventeen
year old daughter Barbara, who promptly falls in love with him.
After Kansas learns that ranchers who have refused to join the
protective association are being victimized by rustlers, he becomes
suspicious of Dawson and searches his office, where he finds a
ledger proving that Dawson has appropriated funds from the
cattlemen.
When Dawson surprises him in his office,
Kansas escapes with the ledger, and Dawson demands his arrest.
Jailed for robbery, Kansas is rescued by Bolo, Meadows and Swanee,
who know that he is a federal marshal. After his escape,
Kansas surmises that Dawson and his men plan to rob the stage of the
20,000 dollars raised by the cattlemen to pay for new grazing land,
and with the help of his three friends, Kansas reclaims the
strongbox from Dawson's men. Dawson then accuses Kansas of
robbing the stage himself and demands his arrest.
Intending to abscond with the
cattlemen's funds, Dawson leaves for town just as Meadows, Bolo and
Swanee appear to testify that Kansas is a marshal and to produce the
ledger proving Dawson's guilt. The four then ride into town to
confront Dawson and his men at the saloon. Startled by the
sound of gunshots, Kansas' horse gallops into the saloon and begins
to buck, thus diverting Dawson and his men long enough for Meadows,
Bolo and Swanee to enter and apprehend the outlaws.
With Dawson's arrest, Kansas settles
down to marital bliss with Barbara, while Swanee and Meadows venture
to Kansas City to become gentlemen.
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