The setting of this film is the Helldorado Rodeo in Las Vegas,
mid-1940's: Someone is trying to sneak unregistered 1000 Dollar bills by
the taxman by having a front man - gambler and playboy Alec Baxter (Brad
Dexter) spend them in the casino, and somehow Nevada Ranger Roy Rogers has
grown wise to Alec but tries to collect evidence against his brains of the
operation, whoever that is.
Meanwhile, celeb Carol Randall (Dale Evans) comes back to her hometown
Vegas and is immediately tricked by her associate Gabby (Gabby Hayes) into
being the rodeo's queen - and for soem reason he swears her in as deputy.
Ultimately, being a deputy totally gets to her, and she tries to help Roy
every which way she can, even if he finds her help less than helpful.
Then Alec Baxter, who is a close friend of Carol, is even murdered,
which makes her even more adamant to find the brains of the racket - who
turns out to be Driscoll (Paul Harey), one of these respectable business
men who have their hands in way too much criminal activities to not be
eventually found out.
Carol finds the decisive clue in a small-town post office, but
unfortunately the baddies are close behind and lock her into a fridge in
no time ... and she had no time to inform Roy, who presently takes part in
a treasure hunt organized by Gabby, but somehow, Roy, who didn't care too
much about Carol as a detective, finds and frees her anyhow, and with the
help of Roy's trusted helpers, the Sons of the Pioneers, whom Gabby had to
unfairly lure away from the treasre hunt, Driscoll and his gang can
finally be brought to justice.
One of Roy Rogers' better B-Westerns: The action is lively, script and
direction are fast-paced, the setting of the film provides quite a few
unusual plot elements, and Dale Evans, years before she has become
television's leading cowboy mama in The
Roy Rogers Show, actually makes quite an amusing leading lady,
perfectly counterbalancing Roy's too-good-to-be-true Nevada Ranger.
By the way, Gabby Hayes' last film as Roy Rogers' sidekick - in total
he starred in 44 films with Rogers.
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