Watch Riding Speed

A real-life cowboy of sorts who performed on the rodeo circuit before bringing his ridin' and ropin' skills to the movies, Jay Wilsey starred in numerous low-budget westerns from 1924 to 1935, billing himself as "Buffalo Bill, Jr." Under his own name, he also directed this scrappy vehicle in which his hero is a U.S. Border Control ranger working undercover at a desert ranch to investigate reports of illegal immigrant smuggling (and, when we briefly glimpse those being sneaked up from Mexico, rather surprisingly they turn out to be pigtailed Chinese men). This runs him afoul of the ranch's corrupt foreman who'll shoot anybody who gets in his way. Further trouble is provided by the ranch owner's "spoiled," genuinely obnoxious daughter Gypsy (Jolie Benet) and by the repercussions of a rather sordid love triangle (involving none of the above) that ends in murder. When his minor-league stardom came to an end the next year, Wilsey continued working onscreen as a stuntman and bit-part player. RIDING SPEED was one of myriad Poverty Row westerns produced by Victor Adamson, father of exploitation flick legend Al Adamson. - Dennis Harvey