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Although he received first billing in all of his four Westerns with newcomer Sunset Carson, Smiley Burnette truly took center stage in this the penultimate entry alongside ace Republic villain Roy Barcroft. In one of his best roles thus far in his career, Barcroft appeared as Professor Graham, a nasty villain posing as the Canyon City's benign barber. The arrival of Bat Matson (Tom Chatterton), a retired marshal turned newspaper publisher, threatens to put an end to Graham's criminal career and the vicious would-be town lord kills the newcomer in cold blood. Unfortunately, while removing the body from his barber shop, Graham's picture is accidentally taken by amateur photographer Frog Milhouse (Burnette), who remains unaware of what has happened. When the dead newspaperman turns up in his own office, Millhouse and his friend Sunset Carson suspect the town's new sheriff Jesse Thorpe (Weldon Heyburn), whose election was rigged by Graham. But before they know what hit them, Sunset and Frog are accused of both robbery and murder. Fearing, with some justification, that the sheriff is about to turn honest on him, Graham cleverly doctors Frog's photograph to look as if Jesse was removing the body. But with the help of the murdered man's daughter (Peggy Stewart), Sunset and Frog soon have enough evidence to clear Jesse and arrest Graham. At this point, Burnette turns to his presumably juvenile audience to inquire if they were able to spot the evidence proving that the photograph picturing Jesse carrying the dead man was indeed doctored. After explaining that Jesse was pictured wearing his sheriff's badge even though he wasn't sworn in until well after Bat's murder, Burnette admonishes the kids to "go home now, you've been here all day!"