Hittin' the Trail (1937): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1937, Hittin' the Trail is an action, music and western film directed by Robert N. Bradbury, running about 58 minutes. “THE HARD FIGHTIN', SMOOTH SINGIN' COWBOY STAR RIDES THE PRAIRIE PLAINS FOR THE BIG WILD HORSE ROUNDUP!...” — that tagline sets the tone.

What it’s about. his was one of the earlier uses of Robert Tansey's favorite plot (only the 3rd time he had trotted it out of the stable, but he got six more films out of it in later years) in which a group of outlaws (wrongly jailed this time) are let out to join up with the good guys against a worse bunch of outlaws. And, not unusual in the B-western genre, most of the production crew wore several hats; director Robert N. Bradbury and supervisor Lindsley Parsons wrote a song for Tommy Bupp, one of the actually good kid actors of the time who proved real quick-like that singing wasn't his strong suit, while Robert Emmett Tansey worked three jobs under three names... Robert Emmett on story and screenplay, Robert Tansey as the production manager and Al Lane as the assistant director. And, for a change, music director Frank Sanucci actually earned a composers' credit as he did write a song... Written by Les Adams

Who’s in it. Hittin' the Trail stars Tex Ritter as Tex Randall, Jerry Bergh as Jean Reed, Tommy Bupp as Billy Reed and Earl Dwire as James Clark, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.0/10, Hittin' the Trail has proved divisive with audiences.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on Best Westerns Ever Amazon Channel and Artiflix and rent or buy it from Amazon Video. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Hittin' the Trail page.

If you liked it. Fans of Hittin' the Trail tend to enjoy The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Inception and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.