AllMovie

Having recently signed with Universal, Western star Ken Maynard became his own producer with this early talkie Western directed by Harry Joe Brown. Maynard plays Bud Rand, who, with his young ward, Billy (Jackie Hanlon), in tow, accepts an offer to ride the notorious "Mankiller" with the Copeland Wild West Show. Nasty Dude (Stanley Blystone), Copeland's right-hand man, soon resents the newcomer's friendship with pretty Mary Owens (Gladys McConnell). There is a fight which Dude loses, and in revenge, the villain makes certain that Bud suffers a devastating fall with "Mankiller." Suddenly regarded as a coward, Bud is forced to stay behind as the show moves on, but when he learns that little Billy has taken ill, he returns to duke it out with the villain and regain Mary's confidence. Maynard hired the Coleman Circus to provide the backdrop for this exciting, quite elaborate Western, which equalled the star's earlier grade-A Westerns for First National in both look and budget. Stock footage of Maynard and young Hanlon reappeared in King of the Arena (1933), a low-budget oater which was also built around the Coleman Circus.