Warner Bros. western short that starts out with a man and his son driving a wagon of supplies into a town. The man goes to the general store where he sells his supplies to the store's owner Phineas Hook (Charles Middleton). But Hook doublecrosses the man and sends his goons to kill him and his son after they leave town. The boy, Frankie Wilson, manages to escape but his father is killed. So he vows to come back when he grows up and get Hook. Adult Frankie (Robert Shayne) returns as a deputy US marshall to set a trap for Hook, now a banker. Interesting to see Robert Shayne in a western. I'm so used to seeing him as police detectives and the like. Also nice to see Nina Foch in her first role. This is a remake of a feature length movie called Song of the Saddle from 1936. Charles Middleton reprises his role. All of the footage here from when Frankie was a boy was from that movie. If you'll notice young Frankie plays a guitar and sings. In the original movie he grew up to become "the singing kid" played by Dick Foran. I'm really not sure why WB remade the movie as a short, then reused footage from the movie for part of it. I'm sure it made sense at the time.
Review of Wagon Wheels West
