Summary
Beneath a sun-blistered California crag, Billy Evans—vaquero impresario of dude-ranch escapism—vaults skyward on braided hemp, lasso cinching a spitting cougar as though it were merely a misbehaved rodeo calf. Beside him, philologist Janice Terhune and her parchment-obsessed father parse Aramaic whispers while sand from another continent already clings to their boots. Billy shrugs at prophecy, hammocks himself into siesta, until a cream-colored roadster howls across the corral: an Arab prince in gabardine exile, throttle wide, assassins in pursuit. One wardrobe swap later, the cowboy inherits imperial trouble; the wheelman inherits a Stetson. A tire-screeching ballet ends with the Pacific glugging seawater over the chassis—cut to a dhow’s hold, reeking of cardamom and manacles, Billy shipped east like contraband spice. In the bazaars of a kingdom that never sat on any map, he topples a scheming doppelgänger whose turban hides the calculating eyes of a Broadway stage-door Johnny; restores a doddering sultan whose throne had been pawned for oil and chorus girls; and rescues Janice, whose glance—equal parts starlight and sass—had ignited palace intrigue. The film gallops from cliffside to souk to throne-room carpet in a breathless 60-minute arabesque, each reel stitched with trick riding, circus stunts, and the conviction that destiny is just another bronc to be broken.
Synopsis
Dashing horseman Billy Evans, entrepreneur of a tourist's ranch, swings from an overhanging cliff and ropes a snarling wildcat while acting as guide for Janice Terhune and her father, whose specialization in dead languages soon leads them to Arabia. Billy declines to follow, preferring to rest easy in his hammock, until an Arabian prince roars through the ranch in a roadster, bumping Billy from his sleep. The adventurous cowboy swaps clothes with his highness, who is being pursued by the sultan's agents, bent upon thwarting his plans to marry a "follies" beauty. The car chase ends when Billy drives into the Pacific Ocean and is overtaken and abducted to Arabia, where he ousts a powerful pretender to the throne, restores the sultan to his palace, and rescues Janice Terhune, whose flashy eyes had precipitated her abduction by the evil counterfeit prince.
