Riders Of The Desert

In his third of six low-budget Westerns for Poverty Row company Sono Art-World Wide, diminutive cowboy ace Bob Steele was once again directed by his real-life father, Robert North Bradbury. Steele plays Bob Houston, a young man returning from college only to find that the father (Horace B. Carpenter) of his girlfriend, Barbara (Gertrude Messenger), has been killed by prison escapee "Hashknife" Brooks (George "Gabby" Hayes). Bob joins the rangers in their search for the killer and, with the assistance of his Apache friends, manages to track down the evil Hashknife. Greg Whitespear, who played Steele's Native American friend, was an Apache Indian hired by producer Trem Carr as a location scout and casting director. The villain's chief henchman, Gomez, was also played by a non-actor, José Dominguez, a noted Mexican vaquero.