Thunder Riders on AllMovie

Directed by a very young William Wyler, this fanciful Ted Wells Western from the assembly-lines at Universal reads like a Hoot Gibson reject. Wells plays Jack Duncan, a ranch hand planning to give his new, female employer Betty Barton (Charlotte Stevens), a welcoming reception she won't soon forget. Arriving from the East with her aunt (Julia Griffith), the girl is delighted to be greeted with a mock Indian attack arranged by Jack and ranch foreman Lon Seeright (William J. Dyer). Jack plans to give Betty yet another chance to experience the wild and woolly West by staging a "kidnapping" during a masked ball. Unfortunately, crooked gambler Lem Dawson (William A. Steele) gets in the way by abducting the pretty girl for real. Wyler, a distant relative of Universal's benign founder Carl Laemmle, began his long, celebrated directorial career helming B-Westerns starring contract cowboys such as Wells and Fred Humes.