Raiders of Sunset Pass

Smiley Burnette continues his tradition of going from cowboy hero to cowboy hero as a roving sidekick at Republic after Gene Autry left for military service. In Raiders Of Sunset Pass, Burnette is teamed with Eddie Dew where they play state cattle inspectors in the modern wartime west of 1943.

Rustlers are only one problem that cattlemen like Charles Miller have to contend with. In fact with the rationing and the wartime need to feed the troops cattle rustling was never more lucrative.

Plus there's the manpower shortage, no one to herd the cattle, no one to form a posse if the cattle is stolen. But Miller's daughter Jennifer Holt has the answer. With Dew and Burnette tutoring on the fine points of cattle herding, Holt organizing her own Woman's Army Corps of the range with walkie talkies to report on rustling.

The rustlers are hurt, but far from finished. Still in the end our heroes have the situation well in hand.

The timeliness of the film impressed me. Dew himself points out that women are already in the factories and in the armed services. Rosie the Riveteer now rides the range as well as does the swing shift.

I have to give credit to Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures for this forward looking film of its time.