Under Mexicali Stars

Sandy Doyle, gambler and political chief of a small border town, seeks to gain control of the Bar-X Ranch, owned by Rufe Rickson, to further some undercover activities of his own. He counts on Rickson's inability to stay away from gambling as the means to his ultimate success. Government investigator Oliver Shea and his assistant, Dan Haggerty, start a fight in Doyle's place when they see Rickson being cheated and are invited to the Bar-X where Oliver and Helen Rickson, Rufe's daughter, discover interest in each other and Dan finds himself pursued by Bell, the ranch cook. Sheriff Larson brings the prize money for the $5,000 race of the Rodeo Association, and that night it is stolen.

Rex Allen against diamond smugglers down Laredo way

Gene is the foreman at the ranch owned by wealthy rodeo owner Maureen. She will lose her rodeo contract unless sales improve.

Tex and his sidekicks arrive to help out his friend Jeffers, a railroad owner, only to find that he has been killed. They quickly run into trouble with an outlaw gang in their attempt to find the mysterious ghost train that supposedly runs on Jeffer's line.

Mountie Matt O'Brien is assigned to escort Miss Owens to a remote outpost. But when he finds an illegal mining operation there that is smuggling gold across the border, his superior Sgt. Means orders him to leave.

When Tasker kills Roy Rogers he takes one of his young sons. Fifteen years later the other son Roy arrives buying a ranch in the valley where Tasker now controls the water supply. Roy organizes the ranchers for a showdown with Tasker not knowing that his brother is Tasker's chief henchman.

Jimmy Wakely wishes to sell to the government a group of wild mustangs which he has captured and trained for rancher Matt Blake. The competition is Flora Carter, the owner of a near-by ranch. The army colonel in charge decides to buy the winning horses of a cross-country race. Flora has her henchmen, led by Sam Phelps resort to foul means in order to try to win the race.

Jimmy Wakely and his sidekick "Lasses" White run into trouble as they attempt to hire some cattle cars on the Cattleman's Railroad to take their herd to market. Rancher Joseph Colton has bought up all the cattle cars and intends to purchase the penniless line from principal stockholder Gywnn Randall. She is eager to sell to Colton but doesn't realize that he intends to force all the ranchers out of business once he has control of the line.

Quebec Bill Bohomme is a hardy schemer and dreamer, who, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered herd through the rapidly approaching winter, resorts to whiskey-smuggling, a traditional family occupation. Quebec Bill takes his son, Wild Bill, on the journey. Also Henry Coville, an inscrutable whiskey smuggler, and Rat Kinneson, Quebec Bill's perpetually disconsolate ex-con hired man. Together, they cross the border into vast reaches of Canadian wilderness for an unforgettable four days "full of terror, full of wonder."

Bantam-weight western star Don "Red" Barry certainly deserved his designation as "The Cowboy Cagney" in Republic's Desert Bandit. Barry is cast as two-fisted Texas Ranger Bob Crandall, who after being dishonorably discharged heads to the Mexican border to start life anew. He falls in with a gang of gun runners, headed by corrupt lawman Largo (William Haade). It turns out, of course, that Crandall's "disgrace" was merely a ruse to allow him to work undercover in bringing Largo and his minions to justice.

Two peanut vendors at a rodeo show get in trouble with their boss and hide out on a railroad train heading west. They get jobs as cowboys on a dude ranch, despite the fact that neither of them knows anything about cowboys, horses, or anything else.

Texas Rangers Tex Wyatt, Jim Steele and Panhandle Perkins are sent to the district of Rawhide to investigate the killings of several ranchers. Tex enters the town posing as a tramp while the other two Rangers join a troupe of itinerant minstrels.

It's Wild Bill Elliot as Wild Bill Hickok in the Columbia B-western Lone Star Vigilantes. Returning from Civil War duty, Hickok, Tex Martin and Cannonball find that their Texas home town is under the rule of Colonel Monroe, a bush-league dictator with his own police force. In true Hitlerian fashion, Monroe extorts huge sums of money from the populace, terrorizing them into silence. Our three heroes set about to put an end to Monroe's regime, with time out for Tex Ritter's musical interludes.

Hidden Valley has managed to retain its Old Western atmosphere, free of modern-day corruption, until escaped convict Smitty arrives with plans of taking over and opening the town up as a gambling resort. It's up to Rex Allen and his pals to put a stop to it and sing a few songs along the way.

Tex has been sent to investigate the theft of government provisions along the border. Kildare is the leader of the outlaw gang and has his men posing as Indians. He has already killed the incoming Marshal and assumed his identity. When Tex asks too many questons, he plans to get rid of him also.

On vacation at his ranch, western actor Roy quickly finds himself involved with a horse rustling operation and a boy ward of one of the rustlers, leading to the kidnapping of Roy's trick horse Trigger by the gang with a demand for ransom.

The happy Indians live in Antelope Valley and Eddie is the new Indian Agent. Everything seems fine until the town selectmen want the valley occupied by the Indians because it contains silver. So they hire outlaw Indians and Chico to start trouble hoping that the army will forcibly remove them from the valley and they will claim it. But Father Sullivan and Eddie believe the Indians are being wronged even though they cannot convince anyone else.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Roy investigates the disappearance of a government agent who has come to Dale's father's Ladder A Ranch. The bad guys want the land the ranch sits on because they know an oil pipeline is planned through this location.

Chip of the Flying U was Johnny Mack Brown's first western entry for 1940. Brown essays the title role of Chip Bennett, foreman of the Flying U ranch. Before the second reel has tumbled over the spools, Chip finds himself falsely accused of robbery and murder. The actual miscreants are in the employ of a band of foreign gunrunners, who speak in heavily Teutonic accents. Rest assured that Chip makes short work of these bush-league Storm Troopers before the sun sets in the West. Musical interludes are provided by a group calling themselves the Texas Rangers, even though they actually hailed from Kansas City.

A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.