How Long Is “Lightnin' Bill Carson”?

The first of nine Bill Carson Westerns produced by Sigmund Neufeld and starring the stalwart Tim McCoy, Lightnin' Bill Carson was the only entry released by Puritan Pictures. Lightnin' Bill is the marshal of Blue Gap, TX, who resigns to chase down "Breed" Hawkins (John Merton) and the "Pecos" Kid (Rex Lease), a couple of outlaws he earlier ran out of town. During a stagecoach robbery, Pecos witnesses Hawkins murder a deputy (Edmund Cobb) and flees to the house of his brother, "Silent" Tom Rand (Harry Worth). Bill discovers the body of Bates the deputy, and follows the trail to the Rand house where he arrests Pecos. Learning that the killer is really Hawkins, Bill fails to save Pecos from being hanged by the sheriff (Jack Rockwell). Avenging his brother's death, Rand kills both the sheriff and his posse, leaving a playing card on each corpse. Tom has saved the highest card for Bill, but confronted with the lawman, he realizes that vengeance is the sole responsibility of God and secretly empties his own gun before meeting Bill in a final shootout. McCoy made four additional non-Carson Westerns for Puritan before bringing his act to Neufeld's Victory Pictures and resuming the Bill Carson series.