After cattle rustler “Black” Bart Dunstan leaves his stepchildren, Lucy and her handicapped little brother Dave, at a barn dance, he goes to the local saloon with his henchman, Pedro Gonzalez, to meet hired rustler Sunny Carnes. Although the townspeople are cold to Lucy because they consider her unrespectable, she is asked to dance by a stranger who is especially kind to Dave. Later in the evening, Pedro, who lusts after Lucy, goes to the dance, and when he tries to cut in on the stranger dancing with Lucy, a fight ensues. Back at the ranch, Bart and Pedro tell Sunny that the 1,000 head of cattle that have been rounded up must be taken across the border before they are missed, and Sunny insists on a 50 percent cut and on using his own men for the job. The rustlers soon learn that the Cattlemen’s Association has sent out a new man, Steve Donovan, and after a campfire, Bart decides to use Lucy to lure Donovan into a trap. Lucy pretends to be hurt by the side of the road, knowing that if she does not go along with Bart’s scheme, Dave will be severely punished. However, when she sees that Donovan is none other than the stranger with whom she danced, she agrees to ride off with him. Pedro, who is an expert knife thrower, is sent off to get Donovan, dead or alive. Back at the ranch, Sunny enters the house to find Dave nearly dead from the beating Bart has given him. Donovan arrives to rescue Dave, but Sunny does not interfere because although Dave is his adversary, he respects him and detests Bart’s savagery. Before they can escape, Pedro captures Lucy, Donovan and Dave, and Bart promises to give Pedro Lucy’s hand in marriage as his reward. Bart then gives Donovan a beating and is about to hang him when Sunny arrives to stop him. After Pedro lunges at Sunny with a knife, Sunny shoots him, and Donovan and Bart fight, but Dave manages to shoot Bart as he aims at Donovan’s back. Sunny than leads the remainder of Bart’s gang as they ride off to move the cattle across the border, and Donovan and Lucy decide to wait a few hours before calling the sheriff in order to give Sunny a chance to get away. After all, Lucy tells Donovan, she might have fallen for Sunny if she had met him before Donovan, and Donovan agrees that Sunny is the best “hombre” he knows. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Arizona Badman (1935)
