Series westerns continued to be big studio moneymakers until the 1950s, when the industry was bushwhacked by the advent of television. RKO enjoyed great success with a series built around the young star Tim Holt, a handsome fellow whose charming personality soon brought him out of the shadow of his actor father Jack Holt. Although noted for appearances in classics by Orson Welles, John Ford and John Huston, Holt rode horses, shot guns and smiled sincerely through twelve years' worth of sagebrush dramas. His second western The Fargo Kid (1941) is a remake of a story that had also served for stars Bob Steele and Tom Keene in Man in the Rough (1928) and The Cheyenne Kid (1933). In this version, the virtuous Fargo Kid (Holt) comes to the aid of an honest gold miner being swindled by crooks. Aided by his pals Johnny and Whopper (Ray Whitley and Emmett Lynn), The Kid assumes the identity of killer-for-hire Deuce Mallory (Paul Fix) and even accepts a $5,000 fee Mallory was meant to earn for shooting the miner. When The Kid is arrested, Johnny and Whopper must break the law to straighten things out. Emmett Lynn provides comic relief while Ray Whitley contributes several songs, including 'Crazy Ole Trails' and 'Twilight on the Prairie.' Ace cameraman Harry Wild filmed some of the show on location at Red Rock Canyon and Kanab, Utah, while director Edward Killy was better known as an assistant director on much higher-profile productions. Tim Holt's likeable hero is gentle with the ladies and against excessive gunplay. At the finale he quietly asks the young heroine Jenny (Jane Drummond) for a hairpin, which he uses to retrieve the $5000 he's hidden in the barrel of his six-shooter. BR>
By Glenn Erickson