Last of the Pony Riders (1953)

The last, and aptly-titled, of Gene Autry's starring westerns finds Pony Express rider Gene Autry (Gene Autry) deciding to start a stage line to carry the mail, since with the coming of the telegraph, the need for the Pony Express no longer exists. He is fired by his boss Tom McEwen (John Downey) for being disloyal. Scheming townsmen Clyde Vesey (Howard Wright), Jess Hogan (Arthur Space') and Dutch Murdoch (Gregg Barton), in order to get a government mail contract for themselves, try to discredit McEwen's Pony Express riders by holding up rider Johnny Blair Dickie Jones), who is in love with McEwen's daughter Katie (Kathlee Case'). Gene and his pal Smiley (Smiley Burnette') smash the renegades and finally establish their own stage line, and Gene and which every version of "Champion' (Champion(II)' he was riding at the moment exit after 18 years of genre-changing B-westerns. And leaving with the question of why was a name not seen before on a B-western, Ruth Woodman, credited with the story and screenplay?