The Three Mesquiteers

There is a special energy about this old oater that still works for this cowpoke. It's success at the time of release can be measured by the fact 'The 3 Ms' was the opening entry in a beloved series of 51 westerns made by Republic Pictures until 1943. It captures the camaraderie of the trio western concept that was copied by not a few Poverty Row producers over the next decade. Locations are the real and expansive west, not the boulder-strewn hills of the San Fernando Valley of Republic's later output. The landslide sequence is a true white knuckler. The characters might be stale for today's youngsters but for their time they were original, fresh and, above all, tightly drawn. They were borrowed unabashedly by William Colt McDonald, creator of the book Mesquiteers, from Alexandre Dumas's trio of King's Musketeers.

A B-western director like Mack Wright knew how to establish men of action and good humour in right quick fashion. The movie has the "all for one and one for all" dynamic down pat. The plot mixes the Mesquiteers, in from a long stretch of cattle punchin', with a group of First World War vets bent on homesteadin'. The Mesquiteers are vets, too, and the bond is instant, abetted by a vet's sister to draw Stony Brooke's eye. This device made B westerns magical, melding a mythical west of cowboys on horses with technology like automobiles and telephones. All done without a single note of self consciousness. As a kid I believed such a hybrid west really existed somewhere in the great undefined American southwest. The villains are cattle men not partial to squatters, even if the nesters have served their country. That makes the villains all the more heinous, which they prove in a scene guaranteed to boil your blood. That's followed by a funeral guaranteed to wet yur hankie. As an adult the Mesquiteers still resonate with this unrepentant rescue-ridin', maiden-savin' do gooder.

This film essentially begins immediately after World War 1 with a group of wounded veterans deciding to purchase start a new life in New Mexico under the Homestead Act. So, following the directions of "Lullaby Joslin" (Syd Saylor) the group pack up everything they have and head out west in a convoy of vehicles. However, when they get to their destination, they soon discover that a wealthy rancher named "Brack Canfield" (J. P. McCowan) and his brother "Olin Canfield" (Al Bridge) have been grazing their cattle on the land they intend to claim and neither of the Canfield brothers have any intention of allowing anybody to homestead there. So, in order to force them to relocate, the Canfield brothers send out their ranch hands to terrorize the veterans and their families. What they don't count on, however, is that two cowboys named "Stony Brooke" (Robert Livingston) and "Tucson Smith" (Ray Corrigan) don't approve of these heinous tactics and have decided to side with the veterans instead--and this creates all kinds of problems for the Canfield brothers from that point on. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was not the first film to feature Tucson Smith as he first appeared in the movie "The Law of the 45's" a year earlier. This particular movie, however, was the first of the films produced by Republic Pictures that started "The Three Mesquiteers" series. And while all of these movies are rather dated, if a person can make allowances for the rather poor film quality, they might find it to be somewhat entertaining, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

As an introduction to the Three Mesquiteers themselves (not that the characters stayed consistent through the series) and to the eventual series of that name, "The Three Mesquiteers" is a wonderful movie, with clever dialogue and excellent story, very well acted at all levels.

Bob Livingston and Ray Corrigan played Stony and Tucson as a good team, obviously liking each other enough to tease each other and still work smoothly together, for fighting or cowboying.

Syd Saylor was probably a better all-around actor than Max Terhune, who replaced him in the next 3M movies, but he was a different character and must be considered in that light. Actually, he probably better fit the physical description by the original author, William Colt MacDonald.

Bad guys here were exceptional, including Al Bridge, who went on to an illustrious career, especially as a favorite of Preston Sturges. He even looked enough like J.P. McGowan that they were believably brothers.

McGowan was really good as the rotten leader of the bad guys, but in his character's one moment of near-humanity, he was even better.

John Merton was the brawn heavy and excellent, as always.

Gene Marvey was very likable as the leader of the injured veterans -- an unfortunately always relevant topic -- and even had a beautiful singing voice. It is shameful that even IMDb has no information on him.

As his character's sister, Kay Hughes was lovely and also likable. Her career lasted more than ten years, but apparently she gave it up before it gave her up.

Frank Yaconelli was, as always in such parts, outstanding, and other "injured vets" were sympathetic and earned our liking and admiration.

Look for a young and early Milburn Stone, who went on to great fame as "Doc" in the decades long TV series "Gunsmoke." Even this early, he stands out.

There is really so much to like in this "The Three Mesquiteers" it's hard to know what to say and what to leave out. For example, one must mention some excellent dialogue, especially the line about the French fight for glory, the English for land, and Americans for souvenirs.

All in all, a great movie, and my only serious complaint is about the jerky quality of the print I saw at YouTube. At least it was the right movie: One listed there under this title was another 3M entirely.

Finally, one other small complaint, a directorial (what I consider an) error: When the boys leave a dance to go after the villains, they do so bare-headed. Real cowboys would have grabbed their hats maybe even before their guns.

Still, this is a wonderful film, a wonderful introduction, and a wonderful experience, starring two of my favorite cowboys.

(It's truly only parenthetical I mention having got to meet Ray Corrigan about a month before his death and even attended his funeral. I had looked forward to meeting him for a long time, and was fortunate enough to do so at a Western Film Collectors convention in July of 1976. He was a lovely and charming man, still looking handsome and strong. R.I.P.)

"The Three Mesquiteers" is the first film in a series of more than 50 Mesquiteer westerns by Republic. Not surprisingly, this film isn't much like the later films...and it took a couple movies before the series hit its stride. Now this is NOT to say it's a bad film...it's one of the better Mesquiteer films I've seen. But it's very different in many ways.

One way this is different is the cast. Robert Livingston and Ray Corrigan appear as Stony and Tucson...just like they did in many of the films. But Lullabye is played in this film only by Syd Saylor....instead of Tex Terhune. I didn't mind this too much, as it meant that Terhune's sidekick, Elmer the Dummy, isn't in this film! But Lullabye is different in more ways than this. Instead, he's an Eastern dude who has lied to his army buddies...telling them all about life out west!

The film begins just after WWI and involves a group of soldiers recovering at a hospital. They are all about to be released soon...and they decide to follow Lullabye's advice and travel to New Mexico to buy and run a ranch. But a local baddie wants all the range to himself and soon he begins arranging 'accidents'...and when they don't discourage the vets, they resort to murder! Can Tucson and Stony help?

The baddie wanting all the land for himself is a very familiar plot to B-westerns. But this one is a bit different with the vet angle and the story is generally quite good...though the resolution at the end did seem with the villain accidentally confessing is a bit too easy. If you like these sorts of film, this is is slightly better than average....and worth your time.

By the way, I mentioned above 'kids, don't try this at home!' because near the end, one of the heroes repeatedly pulls the pins out of grenades with HIS TEETH!!! If you really did this, you'd need to invest in some dentures!!