Plot

Outlaws along the Texas-Mexican border are mysteriously disappearing without a trace, so the Durango Kid adopts a second fake outlaw identity to expose the scheme.

Wanted outlaws have mysteriously disappeared. Ranger Captain Henley and Steve have a plan to find them. Steve becomes a wanted man by faking the killing of Henley. Not only is he now in trouble as both the Rangers and the Mexican Rurales are after him, but Smiley knows him and may expose his masquerade to the bad guys.—Maurice VanAuken <[email protected]>

The tell-tale signs that one of the films in Columbia's "Durango Kid" series is going to be comprised of about thirty minutes of stock footage from one of the earlier films are; 1) there is no actress credited, 2) it opens with a droning narrative and 3) the opening scene cuts right to the stock footage. All three apply here, but once past the opening scene that has Edmund Cobb, Ray Bennett, John Merton and Kermit Maynard robbing a bank in footage from "Galloping Thunder" (and Maynard reappears a few scenes later as a stage guard in the new footage), this "Durango" entry quickly becomes a film that looks unlike any other in the series reference design, style, plot, acting, camera placements and movement and other little attributes that sets a film aside, and all this done by, for the most part, the exact same people on the crew side that made all of the other films in the series. Go figure. The plot is nothing new in that the Texas Rangers and Mexican Rurales can find no trace of six to seven wanted outlaws on either side of the border. Texas Ranger Captain Henley and Ranger Steve Carson stage a fake killing of the Captain by Carson in order to make him a wanted fugitive, and find the answer to the mystery as such. Carson comes to Copper City with the information that the owner of the town mercantile, B.F. Morgan, can provide a refuge for those on the dodge from the law. He can since he is really in the employ of the leading citizen, Charles Bruton of both Copper Town, Texas and El Dorado, Mexico who, for a fee, guarantees the outlaws he hides that they won't "ever" be found. And stands behind his guarantee. But the outlaws don't trust Carson too much, and he is caught between the outlaws and the Rangers, led by Tim Starling. Mahoney also keeps busy as Starrett's double for both the Carson and Durango roles, and literally chases himself down alleys, up staircases and across roof tops. A nice touch for trivia lovers occurs when Mahoney (doubling the Carson character) jumps from a rooftop onto a passing horseman and the two men who doubled for Starrett in over 90% of his westerns from 1935 onward, find themselves on the back of the same horse.—Les Adams <[email protected]>