Great Stagecoach Robbery
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
In the 1890s town of Blue Springs, Jed Quinlan (Don Costello), the schoolteacher, breaks up a fight between tomboy Boots Hollister (Sylvia Arslan) and Little Beaver (Robert Blake), the Indian ward of Red Ryder’s. Each child has taunted the other with names like “wildcat” and “Indian.” Quinlan “disciplines” both children and later when the children return to the schoolhouse accompanied by Boots’ older brother Billy (John James) and Little Beaver’s Red Ryder’s (Wild Bill Elliott) aunt, The Duchess (Alice Fleming). Elsewhere, Quinlan meets with Con Hollister's (Francis McDonald) former cohort, Joe Slade (Bud Geary), who reveals that Con was released weeks earlier. Quinlan, who poses as a teacher to cover his criminal activity, reckons that Con should arrive on the next day's stage, and that the upcoming shipment must be Con's old loot, which was never recovered.
Con Hollister, released from prison and now reformed, plans to return the $150,000 loot taken in a stagecoach holdup five years previous. Quinlan and his henchman, Slade, entice the hot-tempered Billy into robbing the stage. However, Red prevents the theft and is pleasantly surprised to discover that Con, who is a passenger on the stage, has reformed will return the money to the bank.
Boots is overjoyed to see her father when he arrives in Blue Springs, however, her brother is less so, particularly after Con declares that the Hollister family is going to make a clean start. So, when Con and Boots go to town to seek a loan to rebuild their ranch, Billy runs off to join Slade.
No one in Blue Springs will provide Con a loan much less give him a second chance, even though Red does his best to vouch for him. Bitter at seeing his father treated so shabbily, Billy agrees to help Quinlan rob the bank. Red manages to break up the robbery but the gang gets away but not before Con Hollister recognizes his son as one of the bandits. Red shoots Slade and wounds Quinlan who escapes to Con’s barn where he hides out, unbeknownst to the others. Con finds his horse and the saddlebags containing the stolen money but when Red arrives and sees the money, he suspect Con. Hollister manages to get away by locking Red in a closet before taking off to pursue his son, Billy, whom he saw robbing the bank.
Little Beaver arrives at the ranch and frees Red who rides in pursuit of Con Hollister. Boots who was left behind, discovers the wounded Quinlan hiding the barn and when she realizes that he is one of the robbers, she is killed in cold blood with Quinlan using one of Red’s pistols as the murder weapon. Afterwards, the bogus-teacher attempts to frame Red Ryder by claiming that he’s the killer.
Red figures out that Quinlan is the escaped robber and proves his guilt by comparing his wound to a bullet hole in the saddle bags, which he had been carrying over his shoulder. Red captures Quinlan, who is sentenced to hang following Billy’s court testimony. Afterwards, Billy is paroled to his father’s custody, and later both bid a grateful farewell to Red Ryder and Little Beaver.

Review: Idolized Outlaw Father. The Great Stagecoach Robbery was one of the Red Ryder series from Republic Pictures. Though Herbert J. Yates's main star at this time was singing cowboy Roy Rogers not all of his stars sung. Bill Elliott was one of several actors to play the role comic book cowboy hero Red Ryder on the screen. He might be the best known of the screen Red Ryders although his nickname of Wild Bill Elliott came from playing Wild Bill Hickok in a few films.This film was something of a shock to me as it involved the murder of a child and a deliberate one on one act of homicide. The Ryder tries to aid an outlaw played by Francis McDonald to go straight which is his intention. But other people have different ideas for McDonald.First his two kids John James and Sylvia Arslan who idolize their outlaw father. Two of McDonald's former henchmen want to take up business as usual. But the fact that McDonald is coming back to Painted Valley to return $150.000.00 in stolen money which he hid before being arrested doesn't sit well with them at all. These two try to use the kids for their nefarious purposes.The murder of Sylvia Arslan in a film that was designed for the Saturday matinée crowd was something I never figured to see in a Republic cowboy movie. It's all the more gruesome because the perpetrator is an authority figure. How Herbert J. Yates let this one out let alone the censors miss it is a mystery.Considering what has transpired the Heigh-Ho Silver ending with Red Ryder and Little Beaver riding off into the sunset is a bit much. Still The Great Stagecoach Robbery is not a bad B western and you can see why the strong and personable Wild Bill Elliott was such a popular cowboy star back in the day.