Eilene Janssen is going down in western movie history for two things, being the youngest heroine and the only actress who can play the xylophone. You'll be clapping along as she plays the "Mexican Hat Dance", and cheer her on along with young hero Michael Chapin. Along with local sheriff James Bell, they work to get the goods on Lucille Barkley, the sophisticated head of a gang of bank robbers, trying to get the custody of Janssen so she won't testify against her uncle who was arrested for the crime.
The youngest team of top billed leads outside of Garland and Rooney, Chapin and Janssen are pals from their first meeting where Chapin rescues her from a freezing cave where she's hiding out from her outlaw family. This utilizes its young stars wisely, and the adult actors nicely support them. The fact that it's a different take on a much utilized theme makes this quite unique, and that obviously made it more appealing to young girls as well as the young boys whom these films were usually geared to. They also have a great hiding place for the stolen loot, probably the last place I'd think of looking. Quite a nice surprise considering that most B westerns rarely had any surprises.
The youngest team of top billed leads outside of Garland and Rooney, Chapin and Janssen are pals from their first meeting where Chapin rescues her from a freezing cave where she's hiding out from her outlaw family. This utilizes its young stars wisely, and the adult actors nicely support them. The fact that it's a different take on a much utilized theme makes this quite unique, and that obviously made it more appealing to young girls as well as the young boys whom these films were usually geared to. They also have a great hiding place for the stolen loot, probably the last place I'd think of looking. Quite a nice surprise considering that most B westerns rarely had any surprises.
