Dude Cowboy (1941)

This Tim Holt B Western was written by Morton Grant and directed by David Howard. The story revolves around counterfeiting and Holt is joined by his frequent sidekicks Ray Whitley as Smokey who sings at least 3 songs intermixed with the ‘action’ and Lee ‘Lasses’ White as (Professor) Whopper (Hatch) who provides the comic relief along with Helen Holmes who plays Aunt Althea Carter a fairly refined woman that’s inexplicably charmed by the Professor’s poor grammar and use of the English language. Marjorie Reynolds and Louise Currie play the female leads to whom Holt’s character would typically be more interested. Eddie Dew Byron Foulger Tom London Lloyd Ingraham and Glenn Strange fill other key roles in the cast.

Terry McVey (Holt) is sent west by his uncle an official with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate the disappearance of a U.S. government engraver named Frank Adams (Foulger) and any connection between his handiwork and a casino in Silver Springs California where Smokey and Whopper are trying to make a living selling ‘medicine’ for $1 a bottle. Frank’s daughter Barbara (Reynolds) hears about it and makes her way to the town by train as well; once there she poses as Bernice Allen to avoid suspicion.

Terry soon discovers that the casino is a big money laundering operation; all payouts are in counterfeit bills. Gordon West (Eddie Kane) runs the operation aided by henchmen French (Dew) and Krinkle (Strange who may not have a single line of dialogue). Bernice and Terry follow French to an old mine where they discover that Adams is being forced to make the counterfeit bills from paper that’s concealed as dynamite (a plot device used later by Holt to escape capture).

It’s a pretty straight forward and uncomplicated plot. Ingraham plays Pop Stebbins who shows up just in time to enable Terry’s escape then fetches the sheriff (London) while Terry et al try to stall the criminals at the mine. The outcome is never in doubt.