Desert Guns

Suspected rustler Bob Enright is shot in a gunfight with Federal marshal Kirk Allenby, to whom he bears a remarkable resemblance. The seriously wounded fugitive persuades Allenby to assume his identity and look after his sister Roberta. Arriving at the Enright homestead, Kirk finds the girl engaged to marry duplicitous rancher Jeff Bagley who is not only the kingpin of the rustling operation, but also the man who framed her brother. The masquerading marshal must save Roberta and clear Bob's name before his true identity is discovered.

Desert Guns was the third of four mid-1930s "B" westerns starring silent-era matinee idol Conway Tearle. While he was most comfortable wearing evening clothes in drawing-room dramas, the four Poverty Row westerns he headlined provided him with strong stories revolving around offbeat situations, resulting in interesting films that belie their modest production values. - Ed Hulse

In his fourth and final Western for Poverty Row company Beaumont Pictures, veteran leading man Conway Tearle played Kirk Allenby, a lawman hired by the Cattlemen's Association to bring in his look-alike, Bob Enright (also Tearle), a renegade rancher. Badly injuring Enright in a gunfight, Allenby promises the wounded man that he will save his sister Roberta (Margaret Morris) from marrying villainous Jeff Bagley (William Gould). Impersonating Enright, Allenby arrives in time to stop the ceremony, and, with the recovered Enright's help, manages to bring Bagley and his gang to justice. In one of the kinkier denouements in B-Western history, Roberta then agrees to marry her brother's savior and look-alike. A Western star at the age of 58, Conway Tearle was a holdover from the early silent era. Despite his advancing years, Tearle did his own stunts and his four Westerns for Beaumont Pictures proved better than expected. The august star retired with the demise of Beaumont Pictures and suffered a fatal heart attack a little over a year later.