Tim McCoy, one of the earliest and most memorable actors of American Westerns, plays Lightin Bill Carlson, a former federal agent posing as a Mexican desert guide named El Puma who is escorting an archeological expedition helmed by Professor Lucius Lloyd (Forrest Taylor) through the Indian badlands on Mexico. Full of rousing action sequences and fine performances that elevate the film out of the B Western formula, Fighting Renegade is the fifth film in the Lightning Bill Carlson series.