
Stampede was the first of western star Charles Starrett's "northerns," filmed through the facilities of Columbia's Canadian studios in Victoria B.C. Based on a story by Peter B. Kyne, the film cast Starrett as Larry, a cattle buyer who crosses the Canadian border to purchase new stock. He quickly runs afoul of a gang of rustlers, who cap their many misdeeds by murdering Larry's brother. Suddenly, our hero becomes a one-man police force, refusing to rest until every last one of the villains has been brought to justice. Stampede was written and directed by Ford Beebe -- evidently not to the satisfaction of Columbia's executives, who replaced Beebe with David Selman for Starrett's next Canadian production Secret Patrol. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi