Bob Blake and his sidekick and four singing cowboys arrive at the Jackson ranch where Bob learns from Betty Jackson that her brother, Joe, is missing. Bob investigates and learns that there is gold on the Jackson ranch, and the neighboring rancher has kidnapped Joe in order to get his land.
The Cattlemen's Association has called in the Mesquiteers to find cattle rustlers. They get Tex Riley to pose as Stony so Stony can arrive posing as a wanted outlaw. This gets Stony into the gang of rustlers and he alerts Tucson and Lullaby as to the next raid. But Hartley is on hand and unknown to anyone is the rustler's boss and he joins the posse with a plan that will do away with the Mesquiteers.
Molly Taylor owns the town of Stillwell but is unaware the taxes are due as Gomer has stolen her notice. Bob Martin arrives at the same time as Molly and eventually realizes Gomer is up to something. When Gomer's henchman slips and reveals there is a letter, Bob finds it and heads for the tax collector with Gomer's men in pursuit.
The local school is causing Hoppy problems. First Bar 20 cattle are stolen when Hoppy investigates a problem there. Then the new teacher arrives and disrupts the routine of the Bar 20 hands. Later with the Bar 20 hands at graduation, the rustlers are poised to strike again. But there is dissension among them and this will lead to the break that Hoppy needs.
Halstead forces the Land Agent to alter the records and then kicks the Mexicans off their land. Buck has been sent to investigate and quickly joins up with Juan Cantova in the fight against Halstead. To keep Buck from seeing the records, Halstead has the Agent murdered. His men then claim Juan killed him and both Buck and Juan then find themselves wanted dead or alive.
An unusual film in that it was composed of new film footage tacked onto an original film produced by M. H. Hoffman Sr. and Jr.,and never released because of the collapse and merger of the Hoffman's Liberty Company into the newly-formed Republic operation in mid-1935, and consequently has two different sets of actors and production crew members.
No relation to the 1950 John Ford classic of the same name, Rio Grande is yet another rubber-stamp Charles Starrett western from the Columbia assembly line.
An outlaw on the run assumes the identity of a dead man. When in his new identity he finds himself elected the mayor of a small town, he decides to go straight.
Knowing that is contains valuable helium gas, a gang of bad guys first tries to purchase the ranch which Gene straw-bosses. When that fails, they lay a hidden pipeline to snag the gas.
In a wild west community populated entirely by residents with dwarfism, the Larson and Preston familes have been in a generations-long feud, recently strained by the actions of cattle rustler and overall devious criminal Bat Haines. Buck Larson, the hero of our tale, takes on Haines, and tries to win the heart of Nancy Preston while resolving the tensions between his and her families.
Chasing jewel thieves, Captain Carson and Magpie head for the border where Carson, posing as a Chinaman, opens a store that buys jewelry. To flush the thieves into the open, Carson wins all their money at poker. They agree to sell him the jewels but plan to kill him and keep both the jewels and the money.
The Mesquiteers capture a horse thief who escapes justice through a crooked judge. They gather signatures urging the governor to investigate but a friend with the petition is murdered. Stony is accused.
Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.
Jack has been called in to investigate stage robberies where the stolen gold bullion mysteriously disappears, He finds the Professor, an elderly ex-con, and convincing him they used to work together, gets the Professor to get him in to the gang. Now posing as an outlaw, he learns what the Professor does with the bullion, but he is in trouble when his true identity is revealed.