Red River Range (1938)

Rustlers equipped with refrigerated trucks kill the cattle right after they have stolen it and transport it away so nobody can trace the animals. The folks at one small town ask for help from the government and three agents are sent over. One of them switches places en route with a friend of theirs, so that he can infiltrate the gang, who is operating from a dude ranch where the guests themselves unwittingly help the robbers as part of one of the ranch's leisure activities.

Routine B-Western with a plot which was apparently partly stolen from Public Cowboy #1 (1937) (I never watched it but was tipped off by IMDB commenter stevehaynie). The dialogue has some witty lines, which one or more devoted fans have inserted on the IMDB page's Quotes section. The funniest one is the last, which by today's standards might be considered a little sexist (but, mind you, two of the film's three writers were women). Aside from that, another noteworthy aspect of the film were the tandem identity covers as pointed out by one Stuart Galbraith IV in his review of the Blu Ray release:

"Tex has been identified by the rustlers, so Stony hatches an impressive triple-undercover-switcheroo: Tex will pretend to be Stony, while Stony works undercover, masquerading as an escaped outlaw named "Killer" Madigan, who in turn is hiding from the law as tenderfoot Jack Benson, a guest at a local dude ranch. Whew!"

Galbraith also quotes one character as saying (about the consequences of the rustling spree):

"Beef prices have hit rock-bottom!"

Contrarywise, IMDB commenter bkoganbing remarks:

"That in itself was an interesting aspect of this film, the inflation of meat prices as a result of cattle rustling. One never does think of the economic hurt, those rustlers cause."

So, which one is it: prices go up or prices go down? At least one character thinks it is the latter. I am no economist, but it seems, on a superficial analysis, that the shortage of beef would cause the prices to soar, not to "hit rock-bottom". On further thought, though, would there be any shortage? The rustlers' beef would end up being sold too, and, being of illegal origin, it is likely to be sold at smaller prices than the legitimate one; that in turn would reduce the latter's price. Of course, there is always the possibility that the stolen meat was going to be sold at another place with no trading connection with the region in which it was stolen.

Rating: 32