User Reviews

Reliable Pictures were a poverty row company that specialised in low budget Westerns churned out for the Saturday matinée brigade.

Tom Talbot (Tom Tyler) rides into town to look up his sweetheart, Peggy (Alberta Vaughn). He had left six months before, to show her father he could make good and he did - but he then bet all the money he had on a horse race and lost!! He makes himself scarce when Peggy's dad rides up but her dad has bad news - they are about to lose their ranch. He owes the bank $1,000 and the bank manager won't budge - he has a mystery buyer for the ranch. Tom rides into town - into the middle of a bank hold-up. Everyone identifies Tom as part of the gang and after a chase he is captured and imprisoned. Peggy promises to help him find justice - and makes a shocking discovery (if you have never seen a Western oater before) that the bank manager is behind the hold up!!! On the work gang Tom finds an old friend Shorty ("Snub" Pollard) who tells him that one of the prisoners was bragging that Tom wasn't even in on the robbery.

There was certainly not as much action as a Lone Star western - although there was a good fight at the end where the inside of the cabin was almost demolished. Which was surprising because Tom Tyler was built for action. He had a variety of jobs (including a lumber jack) before becoming an actor and with his physique he was a natural for westerns. It must have been old home week for "Snub" Pollard and Alberta Vaughn, both of whom were more at home in comedy shorts. This was also Alberta's next to last film.

Well I've seen more than my share of B Western flicks where the story had nothing to do with the title of the picture, but this one takes the cake. You would think that in a picture called "The Laramie Kid" there would be a character named The Laramie Kid. But no, Tom Tyler is the lead player here portraying Tom Talbot, a horse breaker who bet a couple grand on a race and lost it all. So starting from scratch, he promises girlfriend Peggy Bland (Alberta Vaughn) that he'll never gamble again.

What follows is a somewhat contrived plot in which Tom is mistaken for a member of a gang that robs a bank, so now he's on the run from the law. I'll save you the trouble of fast forwarding and let you know right up front that crooked banker Jim Morley (Al Ferguson) had his own men do the heist as a cover up for a big shortage he was responsible for. This was a fairly common plot line for the era, and if you've seen more than a few of these oaters, you pretty much know how it will end.

These pictures were never meant to be held under a microscope, but there are more than a few situations that come out of nowhere as the story progresses. Peggy's father (Murdock McQuarrie) always held Talbot in low esteem, but once the heat's on, he does a sudden about face and helps him elude the the sheriff's posse. For his part, Talbot, who the whole time is seen wearing a light colored shirt, borrows a page from the Randolph Scott play-book and turns up with a black one. And finally, in the biggest head scratcher of them all, the sheriff (Steve Clark) at the finale takes Peggy's word that a dying man told her the truth about Tom not being involved in the bank job.

I'm still looking for The Laramie Kid.

"The Laramie Kid" was originally released back in 1935.

Anyway - As the story goes - A cowboy arrives in his hometown to look up his girlfriend and he discovers her ranch is being sought after by another man. Needing funds to save the ranch, the cowboy looks to help her out and get the money.