Yellow Dust

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in the hills of California. Bob Culpepper is a college-educated man from Tennessee, who has chosen the life of a gold prospector. Culpepper witnesses veteran prospector Silas "Solitaire" Carter getting attacked by an intruder, and comes to his defense. The fight results in the intruder's death and the two new allies decide to bury him. While digging for the grave, they discover a gold-bearing vein. They use the vein to calculate that there is a mother lode of gold in a nearby mountain. Eager to profit from their discovery, Carter and Culpepper head to the nearest town to make a land claim for this area. 
Before reaching the town, the two partners witness a gang of outlaws who is in the process of robbing a stagecoach. They decide to help the victims and manage to scare off the gang. Among the passengers is a lovely saloon singer, Nellie Brian, and Culpepper is instantly smitten with her. Brian is also attracted to him, but her mother urges her to focus on her next singing gig. 
At the town, Brian entertains her new boss, Jack Hanway. He is the prosperous owner of a local saloon. Neither Brian, nor her mother realize that Hanway is secretly the leader of the gang of outlaws.  Brian eventually confesses her love to Culpepper, and also talks to him about a valuable necklace which the outlaws had stolen from her. Culpepper locates the necklace, at the hands of an outlaw known only by the nickname "Missouri". He forces the outlaw to hand over the necklace to him. 
Trying to impress Brian and outstage Culpepper, Hanway stages a robbery at his own saloon. His gang are supposed to act as robbers, and Hanway acts as the hero who bravely thwarts their plan. Culpepper figures out the plan and tries to expose Hanway as a criminal. Instead, "Missouri" accuses him of being involved with the stagecoach robbery and being in possession of the loot. With the necklace found in his possession, Culpepper is arrested as a thief and imprisoned. Brian is convinced that Culpepper is a villain. 
With his rival out of the way, Hanway romances Brian. He gets careless and she overhears his plans to lay claim to the mother lode. Brian tries to alert Carter that he is in danger of losing his gold, but he is too drunk to listen to her. Brian gets another idea of how to ruin Hanway's plans. She tricks him into delaying to make his land claim, then makes the claim herself. Brian is now the only one with a legal claim to the gold. Carter is shocked to find out about this development and informs Culpepper. Culpepper figures that his love interest has conspired against him, and wants to retaliate. He convinces "Missouri" to help him escape from prison. 
After escaping, Culpepper abducts Brian and restrains her with a straitjacket. He rides with his captive to the area with the gold. Their time together allows them to clear the misunderstandings between them and declare their own innocence. Realizing that neither of them is a villain, they reconcile and express their love for each other. When arriving at the area of the claim, they are captured by Hanway and his gang. 
Hanway wants Brian for himself and proposes marriage to her. She accepts, hoping that she may use her new position to help Culpepper. Meanwhile, Carter and "Missouri" arrange a fake execution for Culpepper. They use the opportunity to escape with him back to town. They stop the wedding of Hanway and Brian in time, and expose Hanway as a gang leader.

Tags: violence, romantic, historical fiction

Review:
A B-Western Treat!. This is a little treasure that I remember from the good old days when the CBC used to show these cool second features from the RKO catalog on Saturday mornings.  It's a solid, very entertaining B western featuring Richard Dix who gets mixed up in the gold rush and some owlhoots who frame him for a stagecoach robbery.  Although his film is less tongue-in-cheek than a lot of these matinee westerns, there is a great scene featuring the three outlaws, who really did rob the stage, in the saloon.  The bartender casually mentions that the stage got robbed, and they simultaneously spit booze out of their mouths!  And there's a cool climax in a dust storm.  This is a great treat from yesteryear; I hope it resurfaces again some day.. Why is it that no one in town thinks Hanway is an evil jerk?!. One of the most familiar B-western themes is the big bad boss...the rich guy who is greedy and wants everything! So, when you see Hanway (Onslow Stevens)....you instantly recognize him as this character. So why is it that no one in this silly town recognizes this as well?!When the movie begins, an old guy is involved with a shootout. You really aren't sure who's in the right....and Bob Culpepper (Richard Dix) doesn't question it when one guy shoots the other...he just helps bury the loser! During this burial, however, he strikes gold and the two men have a very rich strike. Not surprisingly, Hanway wants to steal this claim...and he's already involved in several other illegalities, such as having his men try to rob the stage. Can niceness possibly prevail or is Hanway destined to run everything and everyone? And, what does the pretty lady have to do with all this?As you can assume from what I've already written, "Yellow Dust" is a formulaic film. Fortunately, formula can still be good if you have good actors--and Richard Dix was always terrific in westerns. And, because of this and better than normal production values, this is sort of like a B+ film....better than a typical B but not quite as fancy a production nor as long as an A film.For what it is, it's quite good and enjoyable. Though predictable, it's well made and well acted.. Slow paced western. Yellow Dust was based on a flop Broadway play Mother Lode which only ran 9
performances on Broadway in 1934. Flop plays occasionally make good films,
but not here.This is not a bad film just a terribly dull one that moves at the pace of a Galapagos tortoise. Richard Dix who did some good westerns and had the look
of a jut jawed hero just can't get any life into this.Dix who is college educated geologist partners up with grizzled old prospector
Andy Clyde when they make a strike. But Andy in a drunken stupor spills the
beans to Snidely Whiplash like villain Onslow Stevens. Dix is also framed for a
robbery by Stevens as Snidely has designs on saloon entertainer Leila Hyams.You've seen it all before and better.. Dull Old Fashioned Western. Richard Dix finds himself a partner, a gold mine, and a girlfriend, in this paint by the numbers western. In the meantime, Dix has to foil a stage robbery, prevent a claim jumper from getting his mine, break out of jail, and avoid getting hanged so he can keep the black hatted bar owning bad guy from marrying his gal.What's just plumb too bad about this movie is that, though there sure seems to be a lot of action going on from a bare description of the plot, there is not a whole lot of action, and none of it is terribly interesting. While it's refreshing, in a way, to see a movie that does not strive to put a single negative trait (except, perhaps, a slightly too swift jumping to conclusions) in its clean livin' hero, it makes for rather bland drama, particularly as there is no possible way the plot won't play out in the way it plays out.Richard Dix gets a few scenes with the leading lady where he shows a lot of charm. Otherwise. It's just boring.