Lost Ranch

Mountie Matt O'Brien is assigned to escort Miss Owens to a remote outpost. But when he finds an illegal mining operation there that is smuggling gold across the border, his superior Sgt. Means orders him to leave.

Sandy Doyle, gambler and political chief of a small border town, seeks to gain control of the Bar-X Ranch, owned by Rufe Rickson, to further some undercover activities of his own. He counts on Rickson's inability to stay away from gambling as the means to his ultimate success. Government investigator Oliver Shea and his assistant, Dan Haggerty, start a fight in Doyle's place when they see Rickson being cheated and are invited to the Bar-X where Oliver and Helen Rickson, Rufe's daughter, discover interest in each other and Dan finds himself pursued by Bell, the ranch cook. Sheriff Larson brings the prize money for the $5,000 race of the Rodeo Association, and that night it is stolen.

Cowboy T-man, Rex Allen, and his partner, Homer Oglethorpe (Buddy Ebsen), go undercover to track down some gold smugglers.

Set on the Mexican border in 1850, Bad Men of the Border was the first of seven Universal Westerns starring handsome Kirby Grant, a former singer from Montana who had earlier acted under the name Robert Stanton. The series, Universal's last attempt at competing with Republic Pictures' many streamlined B-Westerns, also featured the bucolic Fuzzy Knight as Grant's sidekick. Grant and Knight are undercover U.S. marshals tracking down a gang of counterfeiters. To their surprise, they are soon assisted by a beautiful Mexican dancehall performer, Dolores Mendoza (Armida), who proves to be an undercover agent as well, in her case for the Mexican rurales headed by Captain Garcia (Francis McDonald).

Bantam-weight western star Don "Red" Barry certainly deserved his designation as "The Cowboy Cagney" in Republic's Desert Bandit. Barry is cast as two-fisted Texas Ranger Bob Crandall, who after being dishonorably discharged heads to the Mexican border to start life anew. He falls in with a gang of gun runners, headed by corrupt lawman Largo (William Haade). It turns out, of course, that Crandall's "disgrace" was merely a ruse to allow him to work undercover in bringing Largo and his minions to justice.

Willis Newcomb and Bart Carroll head a gang engaged in smuggling wanted-American criminals back into the United States from Mexico. Operating from Sharperville, an oil town on the American side of the border, they transport their human cargo in oil drums loaded on trucks. Border Patrolman Tom Sharper intercepts one of the trucks but is overpowered and left for dead. Carroll, having already been paid for the job and not wanting any evidence to walk around, get caught and lead back to him, backs the human-cargo trucks to the edge of a cliff and sends the drums crashing to the boulder far below. Judge Cookie Bullfincher and Border Patrolman Roy Rogers conduct a search for the missing Tom, but the crooks have gone back for him and find him in a state of amnesia. They rob the bank and pin it on Tom. It is now up to Roy to clear his friend and also put an end to Carroll's human-smuggling racket.

Curley Smith, a lieutenant of the Texas Rangers, gets chased by a band of smugglers after getting caught spying on them and becomes injured. Anita, the daughter of the chief smuggler tends to him and the two of them fall in love. Dean, a member of the renegade, becomes jealous of their romance, and will do whatever he can to get rid of Curley - fair or foul.

Tommy is an innocent cavalry officer who falls in love with a beautiful Apache woman after rescuing her from a nasty gun smuggler named Honest Jeremy. When Jeremy and his gang find Tommy, gruesome violence ensues.

Chip of the Flying U was Johnny Mack Brown's first western entry for 1940. Brown essays the title role of Chip Bennett, foreman of the Flying U ranch. Before the second reel has tumbled over the spools, Chip finds himself falsely accused of robbery and murder. The actual miscreants are in the employ of a band of foreign gunrunners, who speak in heavily Teutonic accents. Rest assured that Chip makes short work of these bush-league Storm Troopers before the sun sets in the West. Musical interludes are provided by a group calling themselves the Texas Rangers, even though they actually hailed from Kansas City.

The Benson brothers, who are smuggling guns across the Mexican border, kill King's brother and rape his wife. King must stop their illegal activities, find who is behind them and gain revenge for his family.

A government agent investigates a ring that is smuggling Chinese aliens across the border from Mexico. His investigation takes him to the Grand Canyon. He finds a dazed girl wandering around who has become separated from her companions and is lost. He and the girl are soon found by her companions - the smuggling ring!