The_Lawless_Nineties

The Lawless Nineties

The Lawless Nineties is a 1936 American B western film directed by Joseph Kane. The 55 minute film starred John Wayne, and Lane Chandler as federal agents in Wyoming. The film also starred a 19-year old and Ann Rutherford.

Synopsis

Set in the 1890s, Undercover federal agents John Tipton (John Wayne) and Bridger (Lane Chandler) heads for Crockett City Wyoming to supervise the vote on whether to join the Union. One group of local outlaws organized by Charles Plummer (Harry Woods)are using dynamite to terrorize the populace and ensure that the vote fails. In the chaos Tipton and Bridger are separated and Tipton befriends a trio of settlers harassed by outlaws. They are Major Carter (George Hayes), his daughter Janet (Ann Rutherford) and their servant Moses (Fred Toones).

Carter had recently become the new editor and publisher of the local newspaper the Crockett City Blade, and when he announces plans to use the power of the press to fight lawlessness and aid the statehood cause, he is threatened by villain Charles Plummer and subsequently shot and murdered by one of his men in a staged fight.

When Plummer's henchmen eventually kill Bridger, after learning of his status as a government agent, Tipton fights on. He sends fake telegrams that trap some of Plummer's men. Then he organizes the ranchers and on election day they descend on the town barricaded by Plummer's gang and defeated the gang leader and his henchmen.

On the day of the election the villains actually initially stop the homesteaders from voting but Tipton leads in a bunch of agents and ranchers to crush the outlaws. It results in all the baddies brought to justice, Wyoming becoming a state and Wayne gets the pretty girl Ann Rutherford.