Cattle rustler Bart Dunstan hires notorious Arizona gunman Sonny Karnes to run his stolen herd south across the Mexican border. Cattlemen's Association detective Steve Donovan, assigned to locate the missing steers, falls in love with Bart's stepdaughter Lucy. He is captured while trying to rescue the girl from her abusive father. With both the crooked rancher and the Arizona badman pitted against him, Donovan seems destined for a shallow grave.
Based on an Eric Howard novelette printed in the legendary pulp magazine Ranch Romances (which was published for nearly 50 years), Arizona Badman is the most unusual of the nine Willis Kent-produced Westerns starring Kansas-born gridiron great "Reb" Russell. Perennial supporting player Edmund Cobb, cast as the titular terror, steals the show with his portrayal of the oddly principled gunfighter who repeatedly thwarts the designs of his latest employer, even risking death to do so. - Ed Hulse