The Desert Trail

(1935)

54 minutes

Western
 
Directed by Cullen Lewis

Cast:

John Wayne as John Scott, aka John Jones
Mary Kornman as Anne Whitaker
Paul Fix as Jim Whitmonlee
Eddy Chandler as Kansas Charlie, aka Rev. Harry Smith
Carmen LarRoux as Juanita LaRoux
Lafe McKee as Poker City Sheriff Lee Brown
Al Ferguson as Pete, the drifter
Henry Hall as Farnsworth (Rodeo Promoter)

The star of a travelling rodeo show, John Scott is falsely accused of murdering the proprietor of the rodeo and making off with the proceeds with his buddy Kansas Charlie.  The real perpetrators of the crime are a couple of bandits, Pete and Jim, who murdered the proprietor right after John and Kansas left the office.  John and Kansas are forced to go on the lam to hide from the law while trying to prove their innocence by trying to find the real murderers, who are determined not to make it easy on them!

Notes:

According to the Hollywood Reporter, The Desert Trail was shot at the Trem Carr Ranch in Southern California.

The footage of the rodeo is the same footage shown in The Man from Utah , another film starring John Wayne shot in 1934. 

Rodeo star John Scott and his gambler friend Kansas Charlie are wrongly accused of armed robbery at the Rattlesnake Gulch rodeo just after John Scott gets his rodeo prize money. The Rodeo Official is robbed and murdered by Pete just moments after Scott and Kansas Charlie leave. Pete then says he just saw John and his friend Kansas Charlie leaving the office. The two fugitives flee to another town where they assume new names. Meanwhile, Anne Whitaker makes a large deposit of rare Wisconsin silver at the depot, but Kansas Charlie intercepts this currency as a way to teach Pete about morality. But Pete arrives to point them out and they find themselves in jail. Pete's reluctant accomplice, knowing they are innocent, gets them out and they head after Pete to try to get a confession.