The Gunman from Bodie

This western from the WWII era features the teaming of steely-eyed Buck Jones and the great Col. Tim McCoy. Along with Ray Hatton, the dynamic trio starred in a number of action-packed sagebrush sagas . This film was one of their best and well worth a closer look by western fans.

McCoy and Buck Jones appear here as marshals out to corral a couple of owlhoots, with Hatton providing some solid comic relief. As always, Tim McCoy's charisma dominates the screen and Jones shows the tough fairness that made him an early western legend ! These guys gave the 3 Mesquiteers a run for their money and sometimes even surpassed them.

They don't make em like this anymore......... and thats a pity. Enjoy.

Monogram's Rough Riders, their version of the Three Mesquiteers work the inside and outside of the law in this film, The Gunman From Bodie. The title role goes to Buck Jones who is infiltrating a gang of rustlers to find out who their leader is. The rustlers have themselves been hired by Alice McIntyre and Dave O'Brien who own a ranch which was inherited by McIntyre after her father and all of his hands were massacred by the same rustlers. The two young people are having their ranch and other affairs run by lawyer Robert Frazer who is the organizer of the rustlers.

While Jones infiltrates the gang as a notorious outlaw, Tim McCoy comes to town as a US marshal sent to investigate. Raymond Hatton goes undercover as a cook at the O'Brien/McIntyre spread. Working a triangular strategy the bad guys are brought to justice.

Jones, McCoy, and Hatton worked very well together as the Rough Riders. In fact so well that in the end all the bad guys are wrapped neatly together in one location without firing a shot.

This film does have a bit more plot to it than your ordinary B western. But that makes it all the better for the adults.

Tim, Buck and Ray as the Rough Riders do some astute undercover work. Buck is very convincing as the notorious outlaw. Great opening scene with Buck saving a little baby orphaned when rustlers attacked their ranch. Charles King is none too happy at being replaced by Wyatt (Robert Frazer). However, it makes for some great fight scenes with Jones. Nice tune from Dave O'Brien as a lullaby to his sweetheart and the baby. Great to see opera singer Christine McIntyre who's also noted for her prolific work with The Three Stooges.

After watching the first installment of the Rough Riders in the film 'Arizona Bound', I was so much looking forward to a repeat of this entertaining concept. However after watching this film, I was somewhat disappointed with the outcome of the story. For me, it just did not have the flare that the first film project, and had some confusing situations that threw clouds into the plot rather than made the plot enjoyable.

The film starts out about the same way as the first film with the three Marshals (Jones ,McCoy, Hatton ) arriving at a small community that is having trouble with villains. It seems that a group of people are causing havoc throughout the community by killing cowhands and stealing cattle. This was all done in order for someone to take all the water-rights, for very little money, as the farmers went slowly out of business. Enter Marshal Buck Roberts, posing as a criminal to the locals. And with the help of Marshal McCall and a ranch-hand cook that is really Marshal Hopkins- the villains will soon get their justice.

Even though this was a nice story, it seemed to be more complex that others in the series. Perhaps I have got use to watching 'B' westerns with a simple plot and routine stories, that this offering caught me by surprise. Even with some stiff acting by the main characters, the film did have many action scenes that will appeal to most western fans.. Christine McIntyre and Dave O'Brien, guest-stars, worked great together with O'Brien even singing a special tune to an orphan baby that was made to pull at heart-strings. This is a movie that was still nice to watch as we anticipate the third installment of the Rough Rider series.

The Rough Riders consisted of nine films made during 1941-1942. All but the final one featured Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton (for comic relief)--for some odd reason McCoy was not in their final film. When Jones was tragically killed in a fire, the series was discontinued. It's a shame, really, as the films were generally quite good for B-movies--very comparable to the very prolific Three Mesquiteers series.

This Rough Riders feature has a minor twist on their old reliable formula. In this case, instead of Tim McCoy posing as the bad guy and Buck Jones arriving in town as a lawman, the roles are reversed--and McCoy is in town looking for a supposed bandit, Bodie Bronson (Jones). Naturally this is all a ruse to enable Jones to infiltrate a band of evil rustlers and discover who murdered a family at the beginning of the movie. I would agree with the other reviewer who said that the plot is a lot more complicated than usual--it certainly is. But it's pretty good and well worth seeing regardless. I predictably good entry to the series.

By the way, the Rough Riders films did not usually have singing like many other B-westerns of the day (such as a Roy Rogers or Gene Autry film). However, Dave O'Brien croons the song "Little Tenderfoot" and it's pretty sweet and enjoyable.