Rimfire (1949)

There's quite a lot to enjoy in this quickly paced little spooky western. It all starts with an attempt to hijack the stagecoach, one that is luckily thwarted by "Harvey" (James Millican). One of those he rescues happens to be the neice of the local sheriff, and soon he finds himself deputised. "The Abilene Kid" (Reed Hadley), meantime, gets himself into a bit of bother with some marked cards, and after a cursory court hearing under the jurisdiction of the no-nonsense "Judge Gardner" (George Cleveland) is sentenced to hang. Now the film gets interesting. He was found guilty by public acclamation (i.e. a vote of those in the courtroom, rather than by a formal jury) - 11 to 6. Shortly after his execution, some of the eleven start to go the way of the dodo - and the townsfolk start to suspect a ghost! Could it be the "Kid" back for vengeance on this who wronged him? There's a decent sub-plot about some missing gold, too - just to keep it interesting, and a little romance with "Polly" (Mary Beth Hughes). The ending is a bit rushed, but hough the production is pretty basic and the acting really unremarkable, the whole is better than the sum of the parts and we are presented with an entertaining film for an hour.