Plot: While trying to solve the murder of a friend, Rex Allen gets involved in helping Katie McIntosh and her siblings save their ranch, and he also discovers the secret of a long-lost silver mine.
Starring. . . .
Rex Allen
Buddy Ebsen
Mary Ellen Kay
Billy Kimbley
Alix Ebsen
Bill Kennedy
Gregg Barton
Clem Bevans
Frank Jenks
Hank Patterson
Harry Lauter
Harry Harvey
Cactus Mack
Bob Burns
Edmund Cobb
Tom Steele
Ted Mapes
Herman Hack
Marshall Reed
Carl Cotner
Karl Farr
Shug Fisher
Frankie Messina
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Storyline Roundup (note: SPOILERS)
Singer Rex Allen is helping his friend Gabe (Ebsen) do some ranch work. With the last of the work done, Rex plans to move on, but a tragedy alters his schedule; Rex and Gabe find Gabe's brother Pete (Lauter) on the trail with a throwing knife in his back. Pete, who was blind, was on his way home after being away for a couple weeks. He had sent a letter ahead to tell Gabe and Rex that he discovered the location of the long-lost Spanish Silver Lode. Rex realizes Pete's discovery caused his death.
Rex and Gabe, along with Pete's guide dog Duke, retrace Pete's steps to Silver City, Arizona. Their quest for information is interrupted when they rescue a girl (Kay) and her elderly ranch hand (Harvey) from being harassed by a couple thugs. Afterwards, the ranch hand quits his job, leaving feisty Katie McIntosh in need of help. She has been having trouble ever since she turned down an offer to buy her ranch months before.
Katie tries to convince Rex and Gabe that they should work for her. They turn her down, but they accept her invitation to dinner when they learn that Pete stayed at Katie's ranch for a few days while Duke's paw healed from a minor wound.
They go with Katie back to her ranch, where they meet her brother Jimmy (Kimbley) and her sister Susie (Alix Ebsen, Buddy Ebsen's real-life daughter). Baseball-loving Jimmy is not impressed with Rex and Gabe, but Susie likes them, and they help "doctor" her doll.
They plan to leave that night, but they stay around long enough for Susie's birthday party.
Katie, who has a crush on Rex, sings a song with him, and Gabe dances to entertain the children. (Karl Farr and Shug Fisher of the Sons Of The Pioneers, as well as Wade Ray and Frankie Messina, are the musicians at the party.)
During the party, Katie learns that her cattle have been rustled.
Rex leads a group of men, and they manage to retrieve the cattle. Duke attacks one of the rustlers and is injured. Rex finds a knife nearby . . . a throwing knife just like the one that killed Pete.
Realizing that Katie's problems are directly related to Pete's death, Rex and Gabe agree to work for her.
The next day, Rex is shot at on his way into town. He fires back and kills one of the attackers. When he searches the man's jacket, Rex finds a clue that will lead to a lot of answers later on.
Once he arrives in town, Rex manages to track down the name of the man who owns the throwing knives. Monk Monroe (Kennedy), a professional knife thrower, was recently in town asking questions about the Spanish Silver Lode.
That night Rex shows a picture of Monroe to Katie, and she recognizes him as the man who wanted to buy her ranch. She also tells Rex about a haunted lake nearby, claiming she has seen its ghost herself.
Rex and Gabe ride to the lake, unaware that Jimmy is also there looking for ghosts.
As they watch the lake, they hear strange noises. Before long, a man (Mack) emerges from the water wearing a diving suit. Rex explains to Gabe that the lost Spanish Silver Lode is in the lake, and that Pete, who was a diver in the war, recognized the sound of an air pump and figured out that the mine was on Katie's property. The object Rex found on the outlaw's body was a fitting from a diver's helmet.
Rex and Gabe ride to the other side of the lake. Meanwhile, Jimmy, who has also been watching the diver, begins to swim out into the lake. Rex sees Jimmy and goes after him, leading to an underwater fight between Rex and the diver. Of course, Rex wins, and he and Jimmy swim back to shore.
Katie has learned Jimmy sneaked out of the house, and she arrives at the lake and calls—loudly—for him, alerting the bad guys who are waiting onshore for the diver.
A gunfight ensues, followed by a chase and a fist fight. Rex, Gabe, and Duke apprehend the outlaws, solving not only Pete's murder, but also Katie's problems.
As the movie draws to an end, Rex and Gabe ride into town to find a mining engineer for Katie's silver mine, with Rex promising to serenade Katie with a sweet song, "the kind she likes," when he returns.
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Songs:
Lollipop Lane (written by Fred Rose and Johnny Marvin) (sung by Rex Allen)
I Ride an Old Paint (traditional) (sung by Rex Allen)
Sweet Evalina (traditional) (sung by Rex Allen)
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Silver City Bonanza is a 1951, Republic Pictures Production
67 minutes running time
Director: George Blair
Producer: Melville Tucker (Associate Producer)
Cinematographer: John MacBurnie
Screenwriter: Robert Creighton Williams
Film Editor: Robert M. Leeds
Assistant Director: Roy Wade
Sound Department: Dick Tyler Sr.
Melvin M. Metcalfe Sr.
Set Decorators: John McCarthy Jr.
George Milo
Art Director: Frank Hotaling
Costume and Wardrobe Department: Adele Palmer
Special Effects by: Howard Lydecker
Theodore Lydecker
Music by: Stanley Wilson
R. Dale Butts (composer: stock music)
Nathan Scott (composer: stock music)
Victor Young (composer: stock music)