Plot: Foreman Curt Benson tries to help ranch owner Milly Collins from losing her ranch to Tom Lawson, who holds the mortgage note. But things keep going wrong, like a wild stallion running off with some of Milly's horses, and a stampede. When Curt's friend, Little Bear, is blamed for the murder of one of Lawson's ranch hands, Curt starts wondering if there is more to Milly's trouble than meets the eye.
Starring. . . .
Ken Curtis
Shug Fisher
Carolina Cotton
Forrest Taylor
Ted Adams
Billy Hammond
Roy Butler
Alice Richey
L.H. Larsen
Dick Hammer
Clark Veater
D.C. Swapp
Gail Bailey
Bud Gates
Bob Brandon
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Storyline Roundup: (note: SPOILERS)
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| Curt |
The picture opens to a scene of cowboys rounding up a herd of wild horses. One of those cowboys is foreman Curt Benson (
Curtis). After corralling the horses, Curt stops to talk to Tom Lawson, a neighbor who happens to hold the mortgage on Aunt Milly's ranch, where Curt works. Curt admits that they are having to round up wild horses to pay off the note. Milly already sold off most of her good stock.
While they are talking, Blackie (
Fisher) notices a stallion running free down in the valley. The stallion manages to steal the horses that were just rounded up before anyone can do anything. Lawson pulls his rifle out of its scabbard and aims at the stallion. Curt stops Lawson before he pulls the trigger. "Since when did you become a wild horse killer?"
"That horse is an outlaw!"
Curt defends the horse, pointing out that the stallion's biggest fault, as far as they are concerned, is that no one has been able to catch him.
Lawson, rather annoyed, rides off. Curt and Blackie admire the wild stallion as he speeds across the desert, and discuss how they would like to own him. "But I'd just like to see the man that could put a hand on that stallion!" Curt says.
There is one man who can do it.
Little Bear (Billy Hammond) is an Indian who has developed a friendship with the animal. "You like me. You wild one," the man says to the horse. "You want see all your kind free, to run range. You no trust cowboy; they put saddle on you. Then you no free." He sends the horse away.
Back at the ranch, the cowboys are just arriving, and Aunt Milly (
Richey) and her niece Ellen (
Cotton) see the obvious lack of horses, and start chewing Curt out for letting the stallion steal the herd. Without some money, and soon, Aunt Milly could lose the ranch. Curt vows to put a rope on the stallion one day.
Little does Curt know that Lawson is the one responsible for the loss of the horses. He and his top hand Wolf (
Adams) have a pretty slick game going, but two certain men are a threat to their operation—Little Bear, and a new employee of Lawson's, Johnny Adams, who refuses to help with their shady deals. Lawson tells Wolf he knows how to solve both problems.
Little Bear has already gone to Curt and told him that he saw some men—he couldn't tell who, for sure—letting the stallion go. Little Bear says he will be certain of who they were after he goes and looks at a suspect's horses. He says he will come back and tell Curt later.
After Little Bear leaves, Ellen comes looking for Curt. "Benson! Listen, I have an idea how we might get enough money to help Aunt Milly." Ellen wants to enter Aunt Milly's horse, Rowdy, in the annual stockman's race.
The next day, when Curt rides into town, he assumes the crowds are because everyone came to enter their horses in the race, but the sheriff (
Butler) informs him that everyone is "tryin' to figure just why Little Bear shot and killed that cowboy Johnny Adams out at Lawson's Bar 6 ranch last night."
Curt is shocked and doesn't believe Little Bear would kill anyone.
One clue is that Adams was killed with an expanding bullet (a "dumdum") and the rest of the bullets in the gun Little Bear had were normal. Although they have the gun Little Bear used, the Indian himself got away.
Curt finds Little Bear hiding in a barn right in town, and Little Bear tells him that he was knocked out while snooping around Lawson's ranch. But he did find the horses he was looking for—the horses that carried the men who are after Milly's ranch.
A bit later, Curt and Aunt Milly and Ellen run into Lawson and Wolf on the street. Curt provokes them, hoping to get bullets from their guns to compare with the bullet taken out of Adams. (Kind of a risky way to go about it, huh?) The sheriff interrupts before things get nasty.
Curt heads up into the hills to round up Milly's cattle. Wolf follows and tries to ambush him, but Curt turns the tables and knocks Wolf out cold in a fist fight. After knocking the dust off his hat—the most important thing to do, of course—Curt removes the cartridges from Wolf's gun. When Wolf comes to, Curt warns him to "keep away from me." He lets him go.
And then, the big cattle round up begins.
Curt and the rest of the cowboys work the cattle, and Ellen and Milly cook for them. Ellen admits to her aunt that she is sweet on Curt. That night, Curt and Ellen sit close together by the campfire, and Curt sings "The Hills of Utah."
Ellen and Milly drive home for the night, and then Lawson's men stampede the cattle, ruining the chance of getting them on the train before the two-week deadline is up. Curt catches one of the bad guys, named Luke, and recognizes him as one of Lawson's men.
Curt announces that it is time for a showdown with Lawson. When Ellen hears about it, she rides into town for the sheriff. Curt and a few others ride to Lawson's ranch and call him out. He answers with gunfire. A full-fledged shootout begins and continues until the sheriff and Ellen ride up. Lawson finds excuses for every insinuation Curt throws at him. With no proof, Curt is forced to leave. "We'll settle this our own way,"
he says.
Now, with no wild horses and no cattle, Aunt Milly's only hope of paying off the note in time is Rowdy, her horse. But Lawson has a three-year-old racehorse that, Milly knows, Rowdy cannot beat.
While out trying to gather up a few head of cattle, Curt manages to get a rope on the wild stallion, but the horse runs off with the rope around his neck. Little Bear, who has been hiding at the ranch, calmly walks up and pets the stallion, handing the rope back to Curt.
He asks Curt what the stallion will be used for. Curt replies that he would like to use him to win the race for Aunt Milly. This satisfies Little Bear, who just doesn't want the stallion to be put under a saddle. Little Bear swings onto the stallion and rides him to the ranch, with Curt and Blackie trailing behind, thoroughly dumbfounded.
The sheriff finds out about Little Bear's hiding spot and comes to arrest him. Before he is taken away, Little Bear gives strict orders to Curt to never put a saddle on the stallion.
And attempts at riding the stallion don't go very well, but Curt says that he will get a rider for the stallion yet.
On the day of the race, Lawson bets Milly a thousand dollars and her debts against his three thousand that his horse will beat her horse. He doesn't realize she is entering the stallion. Ellen names the stallion Miracle Boy.
Meanwhile, Curt makes a sort of deal with the sheriff so that Little Beat can ride Miracle Boy in the race. Curt knocks the sheriff out (with his permission, of course), and unlocks Little Bear's cell.
But Little Bear refuses to ride. He says that the horse belongs to Curt, and Curt should ride him. Finally, Curt talks Little Bear into it, promising to give him the horse if he wins. "Me ride," Little Bear says.
While the race is happening, the sheriff arrests Lawson and Wolf, with a little help from Curt, after their guilt becomes apparent.
Little Bear and Miracle Boy win the race, which means that Milly gets to keep her ranch, and Little Bear gets to keep the stallion.
The movie closes as Curt, Ellen, and Little Bear ride to the top of a ridge. Little Bear releases the stallion back into the wild, free to roam again.
The End
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Songs:
Hills of Utah
(written and sung by Ken Curtis)
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Stallion Canyon is a 1949 Kanab Pictures Corporation production
Distributed by Astor Pictures Corporation
Director: Harry L. Fraser
Producers: H.R. Brandon
Robert L. Fenton
Writer: Hy Heath
Cinematographer: Jack McClusky
Film Editor: Ray Snyder
Art Director: H.R. Brandon
Production Manager: J.E. Froman
Sound Department by: Lyle Willey
Music Department: Emil Velazco
Production Assistant: Jack Lewis
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Links:
Carolina Cotton's script for Stallion Canyon.
