Ken Maynard Double Feature: Hell-Fire Austin (1932) / Texas Gunfighter (1932) (DVD)

A double feature of films starring Ken Maynard:

Hell-Fire Austin (1932, B&W): Ex-rodeo rider Ken "Hell-Fire" Austin and his pal Bouncer have just returned from serving in the US Cavalry when they land a 60 day stretch on a chain gang as punishment for an unpaid lunch tab. Ken and Bouncer think they have an ally in Mark Edmunds, a local rancher, who is secretly conspiring to cheat young Judy Brooks out of her prize steed, Tarzan, the fastest horse in the county. This plot doesn't sit well with :Hell-Fire,: and he aims to protect Judy and Tarzan from the rancher's evil scheme.

Filmed on location for two weeks in Lone Pine, California, Hell-Fire Austin was Ken Maynard's final western for Tiffany Productions. Ted McCord, the future cinematographer of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), East of Eden (1955), and The Sound of Music (1965), assisted behind the cameras, and comic co-star Nat Pendleton later appeared as a regular in MGM's Thin Man and Dr. Kildare series.

Texas Gun fighter (1932, B&W): Bill Dane, a.k.a. Texas Gunfighter, has just bid adios to the outlaw gang of Drag Kells when he rescues a runaway wagon carrying the pretty daughter of a local mine owner - and a supply of gold bullion. Bill's heroic deed earns him a sheriff's badge in Silver City, but a vengeful Kells wants that gold and thinks Bill is just the man to help him steal it.

In this tightly paced Ken Maynard western (one of nine he made in 1932), the cowboy star's amazing riding skills are on impressive display. As a child, Maynard copied all the stunts he saw in circuses, and at age 14, ran away from home to join a wagon show. Maynard finally entered the movies in 1923 after working as a trick rider with the Buffalo Bill and Ringling Brothers Wild West shows.

• western