Tim Holt might be best remembered for his work in Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) or in John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), but much of his career was spent in "B" Westerns like Saddle Legion (1951). Westerns were a family tradition for Holt; his father, Jack, had been a Western star dating back to the days of the silents, and young Tim began his own career as a nine-year-old in his father's film The Vanishing Pioneer (1928).

Saddle Legion , advertised as "Grit and Guts Foil Cattle Hijack Plot!" was one of a long-running series Holt made during his two decades at RKO. Drunken cowboy Gabe (James Bush) is fired after causing a cattle stampede. Out for revenge, Gabe shoots and wounds his boss, Fred Warren (Cliff Clark), before taking off for Mexico, pursued by Dave Saunders (Holt) and his sidekick Chito (Richard Martin, who co-starred with Holt in several films). While hiding out in a border town, Gabe joins up with Ace Kelso (Mauritz Hugo) to steal Warren's cattle by getting one of the gang to infiltrate the ranch and claim the cattle are sick and must be destroyed. Instead of killing the cattle, the rustlers plan to steal and resell them. Also in the cast with Holt were Dorothy Malone, Movita (who would later marry Marlon Brando), and Stanley Andrews.

Directed by Lesley Selander, from a script by Ed Earl Repp, Saddle Legion was shot very quickly and very cheaply in the typical "B" picture tradition on the RKO lot in Hollywood and on location at the Garner Ranch near Lake Hemet during the month of July 1950. Saddle Legion opened in Los Angeles on April 20, 1951.

Holt grew tired of working in low budget films and would soon retire to his ranch in Oklahoma when his contract expired in 1952, only making occasional film appearances. After working for many years as a radio executive in Oklahoma, Tim Holt died in 1973.

SOURCES:

The Internet Movie Database
Monush, Barry The Encyclopedia of Screen Actors From the Silent Era to 1965
Schneider, Jerry L. Western Movie Making Locations Vol. 1: Southern California

By Lorraine LoBianco