Three Texas Steers

Three Texas Steers (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Fast paced Three Mesquiteers film has the gang trying to rescue a circus owner who's being harassed for her property. The story itself really isn't anything new or groundbreaking but if you've ever wanted to see John Wayne act next to a midget and gorilla then this is the film for you. The film never takes itself too serious and plays everything for laughs, which is a good thing because how can you take Wayne and a midget serious? There are a couple good chase scenes as well as a nice fight to go along with all the circus stuff. Roy Corrigan, one of the Mesquiteers, also worked as the gorilla!!!

Besides of course John Wayne, two other movie legends got parts in the B western series The Three Mesquiteers. One was Jennifer Jones and the second in this film was Carole Landis. After a whole bunch of bit roles, Carole got the female lead here in Three Texas Steers. Right after that she got signed for her breakthrough role in One Million, BC with a 20th Century Fox contract to boot.

Here Carole is the owner of a circus who all of a sudden runs into a streak of horrible bad luck. Due to a lot of accidents her circus has to fold and she retreats to her ranch. It's a pretty broken down place, but fortunately the one piece of good luck she has is the fact that The Three Mesquiteers own the neighboring ranch.

The boys are a bit oafish in this one and Max Terhune manages to get himself swindled which nearly puts them all down the toilet, both the Mesquiteers and the Landis spread. Of course things work out all right in the end as Carole finds out who's behind her bad luck and why her ranch is so valuable.

Carole Landis had a lot of beauty and a lot of talent in one package. It's interesting to see her at this point in her career, before she went totally platinum blond. Too bad she and the Duke never got to work together again when both were A list stars.

An American Western; A story about a circus owner whose business is being secretly sabotaged by her partners because she refused to sell her inherited land. A trio of cowboys come to her aid to save the show from going under. This contemporary Western is modestly produced. The circus fire scenes were edited into the film from La chica del trapecio (1937). Mildly amusing moments emanate from broad-humoured oddities. The Three Mesquiteers have genial appeal with their 'do-good' mentality. There is good chemistry on screen between John Wayne and Carol Landis. All in all, good escapism, enjoyably silly slapstick.

This film essentially begins with a young circus owner named "Nancy Evans" (Carole Landis) refusing to sell some land she just inherited to her trusted business manager "George Ward" (Ralph Graves) for personal reasons unrelated to the business at hand. To that effect, in his desperation to own that land, George begins a campaign of sabotage aimed at forcing her sell it in order to save her circus. And when that fails, he then hires men to go after her as well. What he doesn't count on, however, is the involvement of the Three Mesquiteers who happen to own land adjacent to her run-down ranch and are more than willing to help her out any they can. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I don't consider this to be one of the better Three Mesquiteers films ever produced due in large part to the heavy focus on "Lullaby Joslin" (Max Terhune) who is typically there in a supporting role to provide comic relief. That being said, rather than featuring a prominent actor like John Wayne (as "Stony Brooke) or even Ray Corrigan ("Tucson Smith") for that matter, the director (George Sherman) chose to showcase the weakest of the Three Mesquiteers instead. And that would have been fine if Max Terhune was actually funny. But he wasn't--and this had a negative impact on the movie as a whole. At least, that is how it seemed to me. In any case, I didn't particularly care for this specific addition to the series, and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Another Three Mesquiteers western from Republic starring John Wayne, Max Terhune, and Ray 'Crash' Corrigan. This one has the trio helping out beautiful circus owner Carole Landis who's being robbed by villain Ralph Graves. An enjoyable B western that's probably my favorite of the Three Mesquiteer films I've seen. Lovely Carole Landis is partly responsible for that. Also the circus characters are fun, particularly Billy Curtis and Collette Lyons. They provide more humor than usual for this series. Corrigan has a second role in this one playing a gorilla. He was very familiar with that role, having been in quite a few ape suits in films before his western career. He would return to ape suits after the western well dried up. For his part John Wayne is solid as usual but there are no hints at his future superstardom here. Stagecoach had already been released so Duke was no doubt just biding his time until his contract was up and he could be done with these throwaway low-budget westerns. Comedy and a nice supporting cast make this a better than average B western of the period.