Crooked lawyer Samuel Creech frames a murder on The Tonto Kid and them enlists the aid of a circus performer, Nancy Cahill, to pose as the missing daughter of cattle-rancher Rance Cartwright. The Kid, aided by young Wesley Fritch and a reformed-Nancy, manages to prove his own innocence while putting an end to Creech's crooked scheme. Lawyer Creech is after the ranch of the dying Cartwright. First he brings in Cahill to pose as the only living relative. Then when the Tonto Kid finds platinum on the ranch, Creech frames him for murder. The film was the first of a proposed series of six set to star Rex Bell, Ruth Mix and Buzz Barton for the 1934-35 production season(September through August) and was to be followed by "Gunsmoke", "Rodeo Rustlers" "Roped", "Riders of the Law" and "The Lumber Hawk" as the announced titles. But only three more were actually filmed; "Gun Fire". "Fighting Pioneers" and "Saddle Aces" before Resolute closed shop. Mannon/Resolute also announced, at the same time of the proposed six Bell-Mix-Barton westerns, that "Sky Fighters"–-The Greatest Air Serial Ever Filmed" was "in preparation, but those 12 episodes and two of the Bell-Mix-Barton westerns never saw the light of day. A mostly average B-Western, "The Tonto Kid" stars Rex Bell as a cowboy with a checkered reputation who finds himself in the middle of a complicated situation. Some of it is routine, but it has its good moments.<br/><br/>Bell's character is trying to foil a grasping lawyer who is intent on getting hold of a potentially valuable property, and who uses a pretty good variety of underhanded schemes in his attempt. The plot is not bad for a low-budget movie. While it has some predictable turns, it has a couple of interesting features as well along the way.<br/><br/>Bell lends a little bit of energy to the title role, but as a whole the rest of the cast and characters are routine. It's watchable as long as you are used to Westerns of the era, but don't expect too much more than that.
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