Señorita Delores (Ann Rutherford) is having problems paying her taxes, so she decided to sell off many of her livestock. But a baddie wants her ranch...so he arranges to shoot the Pony Express driver off his horse. The rider happens to be Gene Autry and now unconscious, the baddies' henchmen rob Gene and leave him for dead in the desert. Fortunately for Gene, a horse from Delores' ranch, a wild Mustang coined 'el Diablo' escapes and is cornered in a canyon near Gene. Gene, being a swell guy, saves the horse from a pack of wolves and soon he breaks the horse* and rides it back to the ranch.
With no money to pay for her taxes and an auction of the ranch in a few days, things look dire. But Gene has a plan to use the now tame el Diablo to lure more mustangs to the ranch....and they can then sell the horses to the Pony Express company** and pay off the taxes. At the same time, however, a seemingly nice guy is wooing Delores...though he really is the big bad boss who is trying to take away her land. Can Gene expose this baddie AND manage to get a contract to sell all these Mustangs? Well, it all boils down to a big race between Gene's Mustangs*** and the baddies Thoroughbreds.
This is a very good installment of the Gene Autry franchise. My only complaint is that the reused footage of a horse being broken bareback is exciting to watch...and obviously lifted from an older source, as the footage is very grainy. It really looked cheap and out of place. Otherwise, a very exciting and unique western...well worth your time.
*While Rutherford was a nice actress, she was all wrong to play a Mexican-American, as her accent sounded more Midwestern than Hispanic. Remember...this is only 11 years after California became a part of the USA and had been part of Mexico before this...so her accent couldn't have just disappeared like this.
**The Pony Express only operated for a year from 1860-1. Why? Because the telegraph system was much faster, safer and more reliable and would soon replace the Express.
***I researched and the film is correct...Mustangs are MUCH better than other breeds of horses for such long distance runs. They aren't as fast as Thoroughbreds on short courses but over longer distances, they are sturdier and faster...with greater stamina.
