Billy the Kid has been wrongfully arrested for robbing a train. In order to prove his innocence, the Kid breaks out of jail and hits the trail to search for the real robbers. Along the way, he discovers that an outlaw band has been impersonating upstanding ranchers.
Good-natured troublemaker "Cyclone" Tom Saunders is hired by a ranchers' association manager to investigate recent cattle rustling at one of their ranches and to see if a pair of nesters have anything to do with it. After discovering the nesters, pretty Betty Powell and her rickety old father, are incapable of rustling, Tom instead turns his attention to the huge, swaggering bully of a foreman, Nate Lenox.
Perry Blair starts off as a sparring partner for a fighter, but when he knocks the guy down, manager Charles Dunham immediately sees his potential. He takes Blair to New York, where he meets pretty Cecil Manners. Blair finds out that his next fight is fixed and he pulls out. When Dunham spreads a rumor that he is yellow, Blair decides to return west.
Cowboy and his friends set out to track down his father's killer. On the way, they discover a vein of gold. The killer finds out about it, and returns to try to take it from them.
Constable Ward is assigned to track down a mysterious villain known only as The Leader. Trying to locate a secret gold mine, The Leader pits the Indians against the Mounties, whom he blames for creating trouble.
Summoned by Ed Oliver, Jim Hale and sidekick Fuzz arrive at Oliver's ranch to find a range war in progress. Unknown to Jim, Ed Brady has kidnapped Oliver and replaced him with a stooge. Brady is after the Green ranch and Jim and Fuzz now set out to help Helen Green.
World War II is raging and the manpower shortage has hit the range since every able-bodied cowboy of military age is off fighting for Uncle Sam. Dad Mathews, a rancher with a huge government contract order for beef, has trouble with the cattle rustlers, led by Henry Judson and Lefty Lewis, who are taking advantage of the situation to steal his herds. John Paul Revere, Special State Investigator, arrives, and upon meeting Mathews' daughter, Betty, gets the idea of recruiting the hard-riding daughters of the district into the WAPS, an organization which will be to the cattle country what the WACS and WAVES are to the Army and Navy. He trains them in military procedure and provides them with radio sending-and-receiving sets. Johnny's sidekick, Frog Millhouse, finds himself the possessor of a "walkie-talkie" which he considers just a "doo-dad" at first, but which is instrumental in the end, in helping Johnny and the WAPS trap the gang of rustlers in their hideout.
George Benton returns from school to his brother Jonathan's farm as a doctor and marries his fiancé Lory, but happiness doesn't last long. The Fargas brothers provide a bloodbath at the ranch and are able to divert suspicion from themselves onto a gang of passing outlaws, but one of the family has survived the massacre and knows who the actual killers are.
Medico of Painted Springs was the first of western hero Charles Starrett's appearances as frontier doctor Steven Monroe. Riding into a small town, Dr. Monroe finds himself smack-dab in the middle of a range war between cattlemen and sheepmen.
Kincade and Blake cause a mail plane carrying a payroll to make a forced landing in the desert. When they try to get the money, prospectors Ted and Si drive them away. With the pilot shot, Ted takes over as pilot figuring another attempt will be made and this time the Sheriff will be there.
In the mid-1800s, twelve year old Hélène manages to flee from an isolated patriarchal community in Luxembourg. Years later, she returns in disguise, determined to seek revenge on the family that killed her parents.
The professional gambler Case Silverthorn wants to quit and retire to a small ranch in Marlpine he bought recently. On the way there he saves the Sheriff's life, who got into an ambush. However another man is dead, Will Donovan, from whom he bought the ranch! Neither the Sheriff nor Donovan's children know about the sale. So Case has to switch back to his former profession, while he tries to clarify the situation. He comes across a group of cattle thieves.
Pete Pepper is a shy, timid circus performer who is scared to death of horses, but rides like a whirlwind when he has been hypnotized by "Ollie" Finch. Pete is entered as a competitor in a wild-west cross-country obstacle race...and has to ride without being hypnotized.
A young boy dreams of being a cowboy. After he gets the basics, as outlined in the title song, he's attacked by Indians. He runs out of bullets and manages to lasso them. He smokes the peace pipe with their chief. A robber is holding up a stagecoach and he rides to the rescue, refusing the reward. He also saves a train from a dynamited bridge, and a girl tied to a cactus, before riding into the sunset (and back to his suburban bed).
Real-life outlaw Joaquin Murietta, who (according to this film, anyway) is a latter-day Robin Hood, dedicated to driving land-grabbers and corrupt politicians out of Spanish California.
