Ridin' the Lone Trail

Lightning fast gunfighter Bob McArthur is sent to help Sheriff Carson break up a gang who have been terrorizing the local stage lines. MacArthur is secretly deputized and begins investigating the hold-ups. He must unmask the mysterious hooded phantom who is at the head of the syndicate when he learns that not even the gang members know the identity of their leader.

Bob Steele, son of director Robert Bradbury, starred in dozens of cowboy pictures and headlines this Republic production. Unlike many of his fellow western stars, Steele routinely broke free of the genre, notably playing Curly in the 1939 classic Of Mice And Men.

The 1937 Bob Steele western RIDIN' THE LONE TRAIL was released by the legendary Republic Studios, but it was filmed independently, its production values on a par with Steele's previous poverty-stricken efforts at lesser studios. At one point, the silence of the lone frontier is broken by the sound of an airplane motor. In between the anachronisms is a story involving a stagecoach line plagued by robberies. "Battling Bob" (as he was known in the trade papers) is hired to ride shotgun and to expose the bandits behind the holdups. RIDIN' THE LONE TRAIL was one of several Bob Steele westerns produced by the pinchpenny A.W. Hackel.