Riders of the Dawn

Marshal Jack Preston of Mento leads his men in a song about law and order as they ride. A man whose son has just been killed appeals to a group of townspeople to send the law to Green Valley, and Jack promises to bring to justice the men responsible for the boy's death. He then tells his sidekick Grizzly to get their old clothes and horses ready to ride at dawn and to tell the boys to work their plan in the usual manner in three days. After Danti, who runs Green Valley, is tipped off that a lawman is coming on a white horse, one of his men shoots Tracy, an outlaw on a white horse. Seeing this, Jack carries Tracy to a cabin and pins his marshal badge on him after he dies. Jack poses as outlaw Two-Gun Gardner, whom he has just released from jail, and Danti, impressed with Jack's intelligence, agrees to his idea that he pose as the new marshal. When Grizzly belligerently shoots a stuffed owl in a saloon, Jack warns Danti that he is a dangerously accurate shot and persuades Danti to cut him in on the take. Jean Porter, the Wells Fargo office owner, invites Jack to dinner, and as he sings to her, two of Danti's men overhear and tell Danti, who is also attracted to her. Danti is pacified, however, when Jack tells him that he persuaded Jean to send a shipment of gold on the stage, which they can then rob. In reality, Jack convinced Jean to send the shipment by saying that he needs evidence to convict the robbers. After deputizing some townspeople, Jack rides to catch Danti's men as they try to rob the stage, but Danti holds up the stage before it gets to the point at which he planned to rob it with Jack. Grizzly, however, hid the money in the express office, and Danti, when he finds the box empty, suspects that Jack stole the money himself. Jean and the rest of the townspeople snub Jack when he returns. When the real Two-Gun Gardner arrives in town and sees Jack, he tells Danti Jack's real identity and, learning that Jack has already been there three days, warns that Jack's men, whom he calls "white caps," always follow him three days later. Two-Gun and Jack have a showdown on the street, which Jack wins. When one of Danti's men fires at Jack, Grizzly shoots him, but he is then shot by Danti and dies. Jack's men, who wear white bandanas around their heads, arrive and chase Danti's men, some of whom have taken the stage out of town. After they are rounded up, Jack climbs on the passing stage and fights Danti. They fall off, and as they continue the fight, one of Danti's men on the stage shoots at Jack. A bolt of lightning hits the stage, setting off an explosion of dynamite, and Jack looks to the clouds and solemnly says "Griz." He arrests Danti and later tells Jean, who profusely apologizes, that he must return to Mento but that he will be back. They kiss and he rides off with his men who again sing about law and order.