Drift Fence

Although Larry “Buster” Crabbe earns top billing, the hero of Drift Fence is former Western star Tom Keene as Jim Travis, who, at a rodeo, meets city dweller Jim Traft (Benny Baker), who has come west to erect a fence that will prevent Clay Jackson (Stanley Andrews) from continuing his cattle rustling business. A tough Western type, Travis suggests that he impersonate Traft and the building of the fence soon begins. But Travis is opposed by Slinger Dunn (Crabbe) and his family, whose small ranch will suffer from the division of the land. A romance between Travis and Slinger’s sister, Paula (Katherine DeMille), paves the way for a meeting of the minds, however, and Slinger switches sides completely upon learning that Travis is a Texas Ranger in disguise. An in-house production (as opposed to Harry Sherman’s Hopalong Cassidy Westerns), Drift Fence was the closest Paramount came to a B-Western in the mid-’30s. Zane Grey’s original novel was published in 1932.