Arizona Stage Coach

Crash Corrigan and his compadres help rid a town of a gang of cut-throats terrorizing the citizenry of the local community. This Range Busters film features a little bit of everything (action, comedy and suspense) in a standard western programmer.

Corrigan had a long career in film, mostly in "B" films. His best work was in the 3 Mesquiteer series, but he does a good job in this routine oater. Terhune was decent comedian, but his ventriliquist dummy often seems out of place in his western films.

This film was fine when viewed in context, but does not leave the viewer with any lasting film memories. An average time-passer .........

The Range Busters - Ray "Crash" Corrigan, John "Dusty" King, and Max "Alibi" Terhune come to the aid of some friends who find their ranch surrounded by highway-robbers. Before their arrival, their friend discovers his partner with stolen loot and shoots it out before being framed for the hold-ups by villains Charles King and Kermit Maynard.

An enjoyable, straight-foreword entry in Monogram Pictures' Range Busters series, the successor to Republic's Three Mesquiteers, this has some good action scenes and an atmospheric (though probably canned) music score.

Both corny and creepy are several scenes where Terhune's ventriloquist dummy "Elmer" talks and moves independently! I know these Saturday matinée B-westerns were made for a primarily juvenile audience, but this is just too silly!

In the final scene when Terhune picks up Elmer, who just finished moving without him, a hand can be briefly glimpsed pulling out of the dummy and disappearing under the chair!

Average Range Busters fare with the usual action scenes (chases, shoot outs etc.) interspersed by songs from Dusty King - one of which he warbles while suspended upside down from a tree - and comic interludes featuring Max Terhune and his dummy, Elmer.

Incidentally, this is one of those entries in which Elmer moves and talks when Terhune is nowhere to be seen. Some critics have suggested that this sort of thing is silly and implausible but, is not the whole B western world a fantastic and mythical universe bearing no resemblance to reality? Anyway, I'm an Elmer fan so, in the words of the little wooden man himself "what's it to yuh?"

In reviewing a film like Arizona Stagecoach one has to remember that this was aimed at a kid audience so subtle it's not.

After some hijinks where Dusty King lost a bet and has to sing upside down hanging from a rope, the Range Busters get a request from a visiting sheriff to investigate a series of holdups on the Wells Fargo stage line. This gang is getting their information from the inside.

I can't say any more but that from the second the villain makes his appearance before a word of dialog is uttered we know it's him. This particular actor made several westerns and he's always a bad guy.

The matinee knew who it was as they knew the Range Busters would figure it out before it ended.

Still it's enjoyable on its own level.

Wells Fargo employees are tipping off an outlaw gang so the gang knows when the coaches are carrying big payrolls. Its up to the Range Busters to break up this ring of bandits, and not without the par for the course shootin', fast riding' and more shootin'. This entry looks a bit shaky and cheaper, well cheaper than the 3 mesquiteers series, but if you're looking' for shootin', fast ridin' and more shootin', then look no further. It's an entertaining 58 min film, and a little bit odd with the puppet, more so because it speaks without Terhune holding him!