Ken Maynard's western series for bottom-barrel Colony Pictures sputtered along with Lightning Strikes West. Former government agent Ken Morgan (Maynard) is pressed back into service when bank robber Taggart (Michael Wallon) escapes from jail. Morgan's principal nemesis is Taggart's partner Laikon (the ineluctable Charles King), who also happens to be the cruel guardian of heroine Mae (Claire Rochelle). The screenplay is credited to Martha Chapin, but it appears as though star Maynard contributed a few of his characteristically bizarre and non-sequitur adlibs along the way. Not long after Lightning Strikes West, Ken Maynard left films for a couple of years to concentrate on personal appearances.