Raiders of Old California

After the end of the Mexican-American War, a small group of soldiers led by Captain Angus McKane seize land along the border. The power-mad military officer sets himself up as a dictator, torturing anyone who refuses to bend to his will. Word of his barbaric rule soon reaches the ears of crusading U.S. Marshal Faron Young. The lawman gathers a posse to overthrow McKane's gang of thugs. Learning of Young's planned uprising, McKane forces a tribe of Comanche warriors to help him protect his land. Now the battle lines are drawn for a brutal conflict whose savagery will be unmatched by any other in the history of the Old West...

Raiders of Old California, released by Republic Pictures, was shot immediately after Allied Artists' The Badge of Marshal Brennan, and uses most of the same actors and technicians as that film. Both movies star Jim Davis, a regular of Western television dramas. He is best remembered for playing Jock Ewing on the primetime soap Dallas (1978-1981) until his death at age 71. Director Albert C. Gannaway also produced the Grand Ole Opry on ABC from 1955 to 1956, which accounts for the appearances of country singers Marty Robbins and Faron Young. Lee Van Cleef's villainous role prefigures his character in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).

BONUS: Stories Of The Century "RUBE BURROWS" (BW, 1955): Jim Davis also starred in Stories of the Century, a Western television series produced by Republic that ran in syndication from 1954 to 1955. Davis plays Matt Clark, a railroad detective tasked with tracking down the West's most notorious outlaws. In this episode, the lawman engages in a battle of wits with train robber Rube Burrows, "The Alabama Wolf", but soon discovers that his girlfriend Margaret is the real brains behind the operation. Burrows is played by Paul Picerni, best known as Elliot Ness's right-hand man on The Untouchables (1959-1963). Directed by Franklin Adreon.

• western