Covered Wagon Trails

Pioneers head across the plains to Prairieville, where they plan to settle. Local Cattlemen's Association president, J. P. Allen, stirs up anti-homesteader sentiment among the ranchers and sends a gunman to infiltrate the wagon train and poison the horses. When young settler Ed Cameron travels ahead to secure new stock from his older brother, Jack, he is ambushed and murdered by Allen's men. Jack loads his pistols and rides out, determined to hit the vengeance trail.

"B"-Western star Jack Randall (the brother of Robert Livingston) was initially hired by Monogram in 1937 to compete with Republic's Gene Autry. Randall's films reverted to straight action-oriented westerns in fairly short order. Covered Wagon Trails is an entertaining horse opera that boasts good story values and offers the requisite supply of hard-riding, straight-shooting action.- Ed Hulse

Released the same week as Republic's COVERED WAGON DAYS, Monogram's COVERED WAGON TRAILS bears no resemblance to the first-mentioned film, either in terms of plot or quality. Jack Randall plays a heroic westerner who tries to prevent an outlaw gang from interfering with a group of farmers who've pitched camp in the open range. The local cattlemen's association dispatches the crooks to decimate the farmers, something that won't happen so long as Randall has his wits about him. The film's high point (in a manner of speaking) finds Randall, bound hand and foot, gnawing through his ropes as though he were downing an expensive meal. Not surprisingly, Jack Randall's starring career came to an end shortly after the release of COVERED WAGON TRAILS.