Song of the Gringo

For Tex Ritter's first starring film Producer Edward Finney and director J.P.McCarthy chose to do a remake of a 1930's "Oklahoma Cyclone" which McCarthy had directed and Wellyn Totman wrote. McCarthy brought Totman's original along, Robert Tansey adapted it and he and McCarthy shared story and screenplay credit, and Finney added ex-outlaw Al Jennings name to it for whatever value it may have added. ("Very little" Finney wrote in a 1976 letter.) The story differs little (since "Oklahoma Cyclone" also had several songs, including the mincing "He a Lavender Cowboy" which died a quick deserved death in the first version) in that a young U.S.Deputy Marshal (Tex Ritter) hunting for his missing father, poses as a wanted outlaw and is chased by a posse into the rancho hacienda of Don Estaban Valle (Martin Garralaga) where he takes refuge in the bedroom of Lolita Valle (Joan Woodbury), the Don's daughter.