Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Complex Holt western with lots of hard riding and fast shooting, but no flying fists. Locations are mainly from familiar LA area scrublands. The plot's a layered one, involving several gangs and different degrees of bad-good guys. Holt starts out as bank robber stealing what he and brother Ankrum believe is their money defrauded from them by a bank. This leads to a series of encounters whose shifting details I leave to other reviewers.Though Lasses White supplies humorous episodes, there's not the lighter tone of the later Chito- Holt entries. It's a fine cast of baddies, including toughie Roy Barcroft in a suit no less, and commanding Morris Ankrum who later saves the universe in 50's sci-fi. But pity poor Janet Waldo of radio fame. When not standing around nicely dressed, she gets all of one close-up, at movie's end. Oh well, there was always Corliss Archer on the radio dial.All in all, having hero Holt undergo some value changes is unusual for an oater, and is the hour's main point of interest. (And see if you agree, Holt looks like a young Roy Rogers here.) Anyway, it's a well-cast and acted western if a somewhat complicated plot.

Tim Holt stars in this "B" Western, haunted by his usual (and unfunny, IMO) silly sidekick Whopper, played by Lee 'Lasses' White.The film opens with a shootout between the law and Red Haggerty (Morris Ankrum) and others from his brother's ranch that's being repossessed by the bank. Resigned to his fate, the brother (Eddy Waller) shows up in time to stop the fight, but is shot in the process. Before he dies, he makes Red promise that when his son Steve arrives the next day, that he'll not lead him astray. But, when Steve (Tim Holt) gets off the stagecoach, Red bullies him into robbing the bank (with him) of $20,000, the value of the cattle his uncle insisted was their's "free and clear".They allude their lawful pursuers, but run into an old prison buddy of Red's named Idaho (Glenn Strange, from The Bandit Ranger (1942)) and decide to join forces. Steve is assigned to take the money into Remington, another town, deposit it, and establish "a set of eyes on the inside" that will allow them to know the best time to rob its bank. Whopper goes along with him to get food for the boys. In the bank, Steve meets Ellen (Janet Waldo), the beautiful teller & daughter of the bank's owner, and is infatuated. Later, he meets Joel Nesbitt (Roy Barcroft), the crooked owner of the saloon/gambling house in town. That evening, he attends a party at Ellen's where they get to dance. Upon returning to the hideout, Steve reluctantly agrees to go along with robbing the bank as long as no one inside is hurt.When the gang goes into town to carry out their deed, they see that a bank robbery is already in progress and they chase the bandits to their hideout, where another shootout begins. Before the Law's posse arrives, Steve makes Red, Idaho, and the others (as yet unknown to the town folk) leave. Whopper stays and takes credit for the situation. Steve and the Marshall sneak up on the building and, though both are shot, finish off the bandits. After two weeks of recovery at Ellen's house, Steve is promoted to Marshall with Whopper as his deputy. Now that Steve is the law, can he clean up Remington, ridding it of varmints like Nesbitt, stave off his uncle Red's gang, and clear his ledger in the town he earlier robbed? What do you think;-)

The Bandit Trail casts Tim Holt as a young man who loses his father Eddy Waller to a gun battle between his family and the law representing the town banker who has taken over the family ranch. When Holt arrives from the east, his uncle Morris Ankrum persuades him to join in robbing that selfsame bank.After they flee the territory the newly minted outlaws decide to rob this other town where boss Roy Barcroft rules. The plan is for Tim to take the loot from the previous robbery and deposit it in this town bank to win the confidence of the people in the town that he is has the makings of a solid and prosperous citizen as he surveys the lay of the land.Unfortunately Tim does become a solid and prosperous citizen, so much so that he gets made town marshal after helping out the original marshal in a blazing gun battle with road agents. Holt also starts falling for Janet Waldo, daughter of the new town banker.The Bandit Trail which Tim Holt is trying not to be on is a nice well played western with believable characters and a good story.

From a story by Arthur T. Horman, the screenplay by Norton S. Parker gives us, without being blatant or obvious, an unusual opening that summarizes the reason for the upcoming action.A rancher's brother is battling the sheriff who is coming to foreclose (shades of today's economy!) but the rancher himself puts a stop to the shooting. His son, played by Tim Holt, is returning home and the rancher wants peace for his arrival.The brother-uncle is played by Morris Ankrum, more often, too often, relegated to being a with but here in a pivotal role that showed he should have been given more bigger parts.His partner in the shooting is "Whopper," a name over-used in Tim Holt westerns, and here played by Lee "Lasses" White, a very capable actor but given some pretty lousy lines. As is also unfortunately common in Tim Holt westerns, the "humor" isn't funny.However, the story is a good one, and, with the great Roy Barcroft and the great Glenn Strange, it is well presented, and thus overall "The Bandit Trail" is worth watching.