Three Texas Steers

One of 51 Republic westerns, in the late '30s and early '40s, under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers: a combination of mesquite and musketeers. The identity of the 3 actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8, including this one. With a run time of only 55 min., it packs in a lot of scheming and action. It's an early example of the directing of B movies by George Sherman. He would eventually move to Columbia, then to Universal, always directing almost exclusively B westerns. Here, Wayne is Stony, Ray Corrigan is Tucson, and Max Trehune is Lullaby. The latter occasionally gets out his dummy: Elmer, to practice his ventriloquism....... Nancy(Carole Landis) is running a circus. Her financial manager, George Ward(Ralph Graves)receives a(planted) letter offering to buy her inherited ranch for $2000. George recommends she sell it, but she balks, saying some year she wants to retire to that ranch. Besides, she doesn't need the money, as her circus brings in enough income. George, who is the inside man for a ring of villains, tells Steve about his disappointment. They decide to stage a number of dramatic 'accidents' to make the people afraid to come to the circus. Thus, the lion cage is unlatched, resulting in pandemonium. Then, a tent is set on fire. Soon, lawsuits also eat into the profits, and the circus has to fold. George again recommends that she sell her ranch, but she's determined to move there........It happened that the 3Ms had a ranch (the 3M) adjacent to Nancy's ranch, called the WE. It also happened that the sign for the 3M ranch had been knocked upside down, so that it read WE. So, when Nancy was looking for her ranch, she and a few circus people moved into the 3M ranch house, before the 3Ms returned. She was so enthusiastic about the house, the 3Ms were afraid to tell her it was the wrong house, her real house being not nearly so nice. Thus, initially, they pretended that the WE ranch was theirs. George soon arranged to set the WE barn on fire, hoping to scare Nancy into selling.......Nancy gets a letter from the government offering to buy her ranch for $75,000., as they want to build a dam there.(George had previously gotten a similar letter, hence why he was so set on buying the ranch for a pittance). This would be enough to start up another circus. However, the actions of the 3Ms have made this transaction problematic. See the movie (available at YouTube) to find out the problem and what the 3Ms did to solve it.......Nancy's circus remnant included Collette Lyons, as Lillian, and Willie: the Gorilla, who provide occasional humor. Lillian is the stereotypical sexy blond bimbo. When she got to the ranch, she asked how long it would take to learn to milk a chicken? Willie, of course, was Ray Corrigan, in a gorilla suit. Every now and then he would scare somebody or get into mischief........This was still early in the film career of Carole Landis, who wasn't in many westerns. Less than a decade later, she would take an overdose of sleeping pills. She was depressed about her revolving door romantic life. Also, her movie career seemed to be stalled. In addition, she had a number of health issues, including some residual problems acquired in the South Pacific when she was entertaining GIs during the war. Finally, she was disappointed by her endometriosis negating the possibility ofhavingchildren

After the success of 'Stagecoach', as well as seeing his wife give birth to their second child, Patrick Wayne, the previous year, the 32 year old John Wayne continued to act in westerns and immortalize the American West.

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.

Before he was famous, John Wayne made a bunch of "Three Mesquiteers" movies with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune. They're pretty silly, but since it was his time as Star of the Week, I watched a few of them. They're formula, one-hour westerns, where the three cowboy friends ride into town, solve a problem, capture the bad guy, kiss the girl, and ride off in the sunset in search of the next town.

In Three Texas Steers, it involves a circus (though you'd never know from the title). Carole Landis owns a circus, and when she refuses to sell to the bad guys, she starts getting harassed. In comes the cute cowboy and his two pals (no offense Ray and Max, but we all know why John Wayne became famous) and they try their best to save the day. It might take them a really long time, though, like, almost an hour. Honestly, folks, watching one of Duke's pre-Stagecoach westerns is probably enough. He made dozens and dozens of them, but as young and cute as he is, you'll enjoy yourself more if you watch the better quality, post-Stagecoach westerns.

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.