1933's "Son of the Border" was only the fifth RKO picture for screen newcomer Creighton Chaney, later forced to adopt his illustrative father's name as 'Lon Chaney Jr.,' and already his third Western, second straight opposite Tom Keene after the better known "Scarlet River." Not a modern Western like its predecessor (which depicted how a Hollywood studio made such films), this is a traditional plotline used many times before and since, the moral problem of a hero whose best friend is in league with the bad guys. Keene is of course our honest, upright hero Tom Owens, while Chaney essays the role of Tom's old buddy Jack Breen, secretly part of the outlaw gang committing robberies in the vicinity. Once Tom learns of Jack's treachery he allows him to leave town for a better life elsewhere with fiancée Doris (Julie Haydon), but 'that old gang of mine' insists on one last job which predictably turns out to be Jack's last, his attempted getaway foiled by the pursuant Owens, firing one fatal shot that halts his friend in his tracks (he couldn't know the identity of the man he was trailing). It's actually a tale of two stories, the exciting if stereotyped first half yielding to a more staid second half with the arrival of Jack's preteen brother Frankie (David Durand), whom Tom quickly takes in, choosing to protect Jack's good name from the boy and avoid telling him how he died. This does not sit well with Doris, still bitterly grieving for her late fiancée and determined to insinuate herself into Frankie's life despite Tom's protestations. She remains the one unpredictable pawn in this chess game, knowingly acknowledging Jack's crimes as he committed them while vowing to avenge herself against the man who killed him, no matter the consequences for the younger Breen (again like "Scarlet River," a preteen prominently features throughout). This was the last of only three credited features for director Lloyd Nosler, and though it was the end of the line for Chaney at RKO he would find better pastures after another six years of struggle.