weezeralfalfa
One of 51 westerns by Republic in the late '30s and early'40s, under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers. The identity of the 3 actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8, including this one. With a run time of 54 min., it packs in a lot of scheming and action. This is an early example of George Sherman
directing B westerns for Republic. Later, he would do the same for Columbia and then for Universal. Here, Wayne, as Stony, Roy Corrigan as Tucson, and Max Trehune, as Lullaby, are the 3 Mesquiteers. The latter occasionally got out his puppet Elmer for a bit of ventriloquism. Famous(or infamous) Louise Brooks is the token woman, who flirts a bit with Wayne. This was her last film, at 32. She was more striking in silent movies. Here, she's nothing special. Reportedly, she detested Hollywood, preferring European films........
The film involves a bizarre mix of horse and contemporary motorized transport. The villains all ride horses, and hold up buses that are carrying much gold, as well as passengers. Given the state of most roads, the buses couldn't go very fast. Strange that we never saw a car or truck? Small airplanes are also featured as a hopefully less risky and faster means of transporting gold. However, the bad men associated with the president of the bus company make the maiden flight of the new air company a harrowing experience, killing the copilot, and making the other passengers jump out, at least wearing parachutes.(Too bad they didn't require metal detectors back in those days) However, the pilot foils their planned landing spot(apparently across the Mexican border) when he jettisons the remaining fuel(strange that there is such a knob!), necessitating an emergency landing on a mountain. See the film(available for free at YouTube) for the rest of this thread.......The film started out weirdly, with Stony parachuting from Ned Hoyt's small plane. He lands not far from where Tucson and Lullaby are moseying along. They even brought his horse along. Stony says he jumped out because the gold-carrying bus is about to be robbed. How does he know this? Assuming he didn't hear their plans, presumably he saw a cluster of horsemen by the bus route and made a guess as to what they were up to. Anyway, the 3 make it to the bus just in time to scare away the bandits. They get a $1000. reward. After talking to Ned, he decides to invest this money in a larger , more substantial, plane, capable of carrying passengers(This last capability was a mistake, as soon revealed, and hardly useful for such a small town). Stoney goes to the ranchers and asks them to sell their cattle, to buy a share in the new company.(According to Tucson, the price of beef was abysmally low, anyway) The cattle were loaded in box cars to be taken to market. But the bus company gang again appeared and took over the train. However, one of the ranchers got away and told the 3 Mesquiteers, who rode quickly to intercept the moving train, to board it or shoot at the henchmen sitting on top of one car, like so many blackbirds sitting on a wire. After losing some, the latter surrendered, as Stony brought the train to a stop. Presumably, the cattle eventually got to market, although this thread is abandoned at this point.
bkoganbing
Continuity was not a big thing back in the day with A films let alone B film serials. The Three Mesquiteers in their various adventures flipped back and forth between the old west and the modern west. Overland Stage Raiders is about as modern as you can get in their stories though.The boys have decided to invest in an airline in this film. It seems as though the modern stage, make that bus, is constantly being held up and this seems a practical way to avoid robbers. Not to mention that Louise Brooks kind of perks John Wayne's interest.The robbers however are not to be denied. I have to say that this is the only western I know with a plane holdup. That in and of itself is enough reason to try and see this film.The once in a lifetime teaming of John Wayne and silent screen legend Louise Brooks is also a reason to see Overland Stage Raiders. Who would ever have figured on them as a screen team.Overland Stage Raiders is one of the best of the three Mesquiteer series with a very novel setting for a story.
dreverativy
What is curious about this picture is that the main protagonists: John Wayne (Stony Brooks - ha! ha! no?), Ray Corrigan (as Tucson Smith) and Max Terhune (as Lullaby Joslin) are actually very keen to liquidate their traditional existence as chivalrous knights errant on horseback. They actually want to invest in a project that will ensure that their traditional livelihood is destroyed. The project is to transport mail, gold and passengers across the high sierra by aeroplane. This will create another disconnect with the land to which these cowboys are rooted. However, they see it as just another investment which will maybe get them off horseback, out of penury and into automobiles.Odder still is the transposition of other modern technologies into a traditional western. The most obvious instance of this is the use of a bus (though not a Greyhound) as a 'stage'. I only imagine that Republic's props department had a tiny budget and so used a bus because they wanted to save cash on hiring an old stagecoach. So the bandits shoot not at varnished lumber but at steel and chrome. The cowboys are a pretty disparate bunch, and they actually seem to be rather dim. Terhune is accompanied by a dummy called Elmer with whom he engages in unfunny banter (he is not a gifted ventriloquist) - very strange. Almost sit-up-straight-and-goggle-in-amazement strange.Louise Brooks (as Beth Hoyt) has a wasted role. This was her swansong, and she was not to appear on screen again. Her career had reached a point of no return and she had to give it up, and she was dependent on hand outs from friends. The preceding six or seven years had not been at all kind to her. She looks almost unrecognisable. Her flapper bob has given way to a not overly flattering proto-Veronica Lake cut, and the lipstick is very overdone. Her beauty has vanished, and she lacks credibility as any form of love interest. Wayne is gallant in a pedestrian way and breezes through his part on cruise control.A curio of scant merit.
