Gunsmoke Ranch

Ray Corrigan, Robert Livingston, and Max Terhune try to prevent a crooked real estate tycoon from swindling a group of displaced flood victims by selling them worthless farm land for twenty-five times the original price as part of a bigger scheme.

Another light-weight, but watchable entry in Republic Pictures' Three Mesquiteers series, this one has the usual good photography, humor, and decent action scenes, including a good climax. Particularly enjoyable is the excellent rocky desert scenery.

It's not the best or most memorable Mesquiteers adventure. However, it's fun while it lasts, with scene-stealing Terhune and his dummy getting the best moments this time around.

After a devastating flood wipes out the farms and homes of a large area in the Midwest, a man by the name of "Phineas T. Flagg" (Kenneth Harlan) appears and offers to sell them prime land in Arizona for an extremely cheap rate. Not realizing how deceptive this man has been in the past, the local people take him up on his offer and sell everything they have to purchase the deeds to these lands from him. Sure enough, once they finally arrive in Arizona, they learn that the land they just purchased is about to be flooded due to the construction of a dam and that the contract they signed leaves them no option to negotiate with the federal government about it. Fortunately, there just happens to be three cowboys named "Tucson Smith" (Ray Corrigan), "Stony Brooke" (Robert Livingston) and "Lullaby Joslin" (Max Terhune) in that part of Arizona who are wise to Phineas T. Flagg and know how to deal with conmen like him. But the question soon becomes whether these "Three Mesquiteers" will be able to help these settlers before the federal government floods the area and leaves them homeless again. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I was somewhat disappointed with this film for a couple of reasons. For starters, I don't particularly care that much for the comedic antics of Lullaby Joslin and this film featured him way too much. Yet as bad as his comedy routine was, the director (Joseph Kane) then threw in another character named "Elmer Twiddlebaum" (Lou Fulton) who was even worse. Fortunately, things improved during the second half of the film which almost salvaged the movie overall. But on the whole, it just wasn't enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Pretty funny-bad Western here, which feature that all-time famous (sarcasm) trio, The Three Mesquiteers, as they help people who have just escaped a flood (which caused DESOLATION, PESTILATION and FAMINE, (so say the cue cards). They are offered ranch land in Arizona by a unscrupulous shyster, and it's up to the three to make sure Justice Is Served! So in less in an hour, we have laughably bad fights, a joke of a song, scary stunt handling, a guy doing a non-stop comedy routine with a dummy, and rather offensive jibes at stuttering people. All this, and this rather curious confusion with the 1930's wardrobe mixed in with western drag. Highly strange, but not really worth your time.

These B-westerns were a staple of my diet as a kid growing up in the 40s and even the 1950's. We played outside all the time and there was no T.V. to watch so the movies became Radio come to life. We could see the action and not just hear it. Cowboys weren't that far fetched in those days as lots of large ranches were still running beef cattle in the western states so to see cowboys on the screen was to live the life. Mostly old timers like myself will enjoy Gunsmoke Ranch but if you sit down with your grandchild (and they are young enough) to watch don't be surprised if they like it too. Don't be too critical and remember this little studio made this on a very small budget.

This was a cute movie - good for relaxing. Some of the comedy wasn't. It was like a bit of corn, so if you are hungry, watch this movie. If you want to relax - watch this movie. It was mildly humorous, but was interesting to watch the old time acting and their concepts of "acting." Today they would not cut it. I would say it is more of a novelty to watch to see differences in quality compared to today's movies. I watched this movie and saved it on PVR. Decided not worth keeping. Just a cute type of movie. located. Maybe we could move there.

Typical guy woos girl plot. Could use new plots, with shocker endings.

Nice background - I always watch the background. Nice scenery. The town (Set) was nice too. Looked like a nice place to live. But, sadly, there was no such place as Gunsmoke Valley. I googled it, that is how I found this movie title. Wish there was someone who knows where this movie was