Deadline (MOD) (DVD Movie)

Pony Express rider Sunset Carson is attacked by a gang of masked bandits. Surprisingly, they only steal a single letter. He apologizes to the intended recipient, Martha Taylor, whose homestead is about to be strung for telegraph wires by Western Union. Sunset signs on to help. He soon discovers that the same men who attacked him are trying to wreck the telegraph construction. Sunset will need all his wits to smash the bloodthirsty saboteurs and save Martha's life.

Sunset Carson (1920-1990) was born Michael Harrison in Gracemont, Oklahoma. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Sunset was an actual cowboy, having mastered trick riding and roping by the time he was in his teens. A chance meeting with Tom Mix got him interested in motion pictures, and after taking some acting lessons, Carson landed a seven-year contract with Republic Pictures. His good looks and natural charisma meant that Sunset was soon in the Top Ten money-making Western stars. But a disastrous appearance at a company party -- in which Carson arrived drunk with an underage girl on his arm -- led to his dismissal from Republic. Though the actor tried to spring back with a series of low-budget Westerns from Yucca Pictures, his career never recovered. By 1950, Sunset Carson's days in the movie business were over. He continued making sporadic appearances at Western film fairs and conventions, and hosting TV rebroadcasts of his old movies, until his death in 1990.

BONUS: Injun Talk (1946): Western legend Tim McCoy explains how Native Americans use sign language to communicate in this rare educational film sponsored by the Standard Oil Company. The cowboy star is billed here as "Colonel Tim McCoy"; he was rose to that rank while in the Air Force during World War II. He was often noted for the sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans in his films, and was called "High Eagle" by the Arapaho peoples of Wyoming. Starring Tim McCoy. Directed by Nick Grinde.