Roarin' Lead

This 3 Mesquiteer film finds our heroes trying to stop cattle rustling and save an orphanage at the same time. Inconceivable but the same villain wants to close down an orphanage is also behind a lot of cattle rustling and the dastardly deeds are connected.

Ray Corrigan, Robert Livingston, and Max Terhune happen to be the trustees of said orphanage and they put a stop to the closing temporarily. As it turns out the Cattleman's Association provides the funds, but they're going broke as well with all the rustling and the insurance payments going out. Cattle rustling had to be stopped to save the orphanage permanently.

Not one of the better plotted films of the series and I agree with the previous reviewer the gimmick where the beans are spilled is pretty lame.

I never expect brilliance from a Three Mesquiteers movie. After all, they were cheap B-westerns and Monogram Studio churned them out by the dozen. However, even compared to the level of quality I expected, this one is awfully bad. Not only does it feature the usual cowboy film clichés but it also has orphans...and these orphans, unfortunately, like to sing and dance. As a result, it's a syrupy sweet and slightly nauseating film.

When "Roarin' Lead" begins, an evil administrator is not only working with his gang to rustle cattle but this meanie wants to close down the orphanage and sell the children as slaves! Fortunately, the Mesquiteers arrive and put a stop to all the shenanigans. Unfortunately, this also means a big charity benefit for the orphans--complete with (yuck) Tex Terhune and his god-awful puppet and the worst singing and dancing I can recall that isn't attributable to a seizure disorder or demonic possession. My guess is that the audience had to pay in order to get to leave and that's how they raised all the money for the kids! Overall, it's a real chore to see this one from start to finish.

This film essentially begins with an influential Cattle Association having to reimburse a local rancher because some cattle was rustled from his herd. It is then disclosed that there have been a number of similar thefts which have placed such a drain of the cattle association's finances that it can no longer afford to maintain the town's orphanage--for which it was primarily responsible. To that effect, the director of the association "Mr. Hackett" (Hooper Atchley) decides to suspend funding the orphanage, thus leaving it without any means of support. Needless to say, this angers the supervisor of the orphanage "Doris Moore" (Christine Maple) who recognizes that, rather than going to good homes, these children will essentially be sold to the highest bidder for child labor. Not only that, but unknown to her, Hackett is also the person orchestrating these cattle rustlings and his only interest is in enriching himself. What he doesn't count on, however, is the group known as "the Three Mesquiteers" riding into town and personally taking charge of the situation. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this particular film is one of the weakest additions in the series primarily due to the amount of time and attention that was spent on a children's talent show over everything else. It was almost as if the directors (Sam Newfield and Mack V. Wright) didn't realize that this was a Western they were supposed to be making rather than something along the lines of a Shirley Temple movie instead. But that's just my opinion. Be that as it may, while I certainly don't consider this to be a bad film necessarily, I don't believe it is on par with any of its predecessors, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.