Without Honor (1932)

Two brothers, Jack Marlan, a Texas Ranger, and Pete, a "lone wolf" outlaw, meet crossing the Rio Grande. Jack, who had sneaked into Mexico looking for killers, warns Pete, who is on his way to play cards, that he would hate to have to come after him. Frank Henderson, the captain of the Rangers, sends Jack back over the border to find a gang of smugglers who have already killed two Rangers that month. Later, Jack's horse returns with his corpse draped over the saddle. When Frank finds a note implicating Jack in the smuggling, he questions his own brother Steve, the president of the bank, about a $1,000 deposit Jack made. Pete, with the assistance of his friend Mary Ryan, escapes from his card game amid a flurry of gunfire. After he is falsely accused of stealing a horse, Pete crosses the Rio Grande. When he finds that Jack is dead and that because of the incriminating note he will be buried without honor, Pete testifies that he gave Jack the $1,000, which he won in a poker game. Frank then apologizes and, giving Pete Jack's badge, convinces him to wear it. Meanwhile, Mike Donovan, a member of the smuggling outfit, retrieves a note buried under a dog's fake fur, which advises him to watch out for Pete and to have "the boss" send $5,000 for the next shipment. Pete rescues Donovan's tomboy daughter "Bernie," or Bernice, when her horse tumbles her into the water as she herds sheep. She tells Pete about Donovan's brutal treatment of her, and later, when Donovan is about to whip her, Pete takes the whip away. Pete follows two men leading Jack's horse to the "Walking T" ranch, where Steve awaits them. One of the men attacks Pete, but he subdues them and rides off. However, he is captured by Lopez Venero, who sent the note to Donovan, and his men, and then is arrested in Mexico as a horse thief. On the American side, "Sholt" Fletcher, who lost money to Pete in the card game, and Steve stage a bank robbery of Steve's bank and frame Pete. Venero then sneaks guns into Pete in jail hoping that he will break out, so that he can shoot Pete after he escapes. Pete, however, foils the plan and then, at Venero's, overhears Fletcher say that two years earlier, Steve had Mary's husband Joe killed so that he could get possession of the Walking T. by telling Mary that Joe sold it to him. Steve then skipped town with their daughter who, it turns out, is Bernie. She was then given to Donovan to rear, and Venero now plans to marry her. Pete sees that the dog's fake fur is used to get money and notes across the border. After Fletcher shoots Venero during an argument, Pete fights Fletcher and ties him up, then rides to Mary and tells her that the ranch really belongs to her and that Bernie is her daughter. He also admits that he has not stopped thinking about her, even though she did marry Joe, and promises to bring Bernie to her. When Mary worries that it will be dangerous, Pete says, "Gosh, I hope so!" Frank's cohort, "Mac" McLain, captures Pete for the bank robbery, but when Mac refuses to look at the papers that Pete has, which implicate Steve, Pete jumps him and escapes. Donovan, seeing that Bernie has discovered the dog's fake fur, whips her. Pete interrupts and whips and beats Donovan until Steve arrives and pulls a gun on Pete. After knocking Pete out, Steve is about to kill him, when Mary, from behind, aims a gun at him. Donovan reveals Steve's scheme to take over the Walking T. and says he arranged with Fletcher to kill Jack. Pete apologizes for escaping from Mac, and Frank asks for Pete's badge. He then pins it on Pete as he offers him a permanent position with the Rangers. Bernie, reunited with her mother, nudges Mary and Pete, and pointing Pete's guns on them, orders them to get together and quit stalling.