The Purple Vigilantes

The Three Mesquiteers series of B-westerns were a staple of Saturday matinees in the late 30's and 1940s. The stars in this one, Corrigan, Livingston and Terhune were the best of the various incarnations of the trio ( Which once included a young John Wayne !)

In this film , a group of greedy masked vigilantes impersonate a more well-intentioned group of masked men, causing the blame instead to fall on them. Seasoned villains George Chesboro and beady-eyed Earl Dwire make sinister appearances here.

This outing is fast-paced, well-acted and the stars give it their all. An above average Mesquiters film !

A whole lot of familiar character faces from B westerns get into this 3 Mesquiteers movie about an idea for a vigilante committee that backfires on its originator.

One of those familiar faces is Earl Dwire who is tired of a lawless element in town making it not a fit place to raise families in. So he organizes a vigilante committee and runs the saloon element out. But some more unscrupulous folks see real possibilities in these caped crusaders for some real outlaw work. Dwire gets framed for the murder of the sheriff and the Mesquiteers have to clear him.

In black and white the title The Purple Vigilantes doesn't really mean a lot. The robes and hoods may be purple for all we know.

Robert Livingston as Stoney Brooke is busy romancing Joan Barclay, daughter of Earle Hodgins whom is their chief suspect. In the end his partners Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune put the kibosh on that budding affair.

I have to say the villain is a shrewd one and the guys have quite a lot to do to best him. He makes fools of them a couple of times.

A good crusade for the 3 Mesquiteers.

This film essentially begins in the small town of Trails End with an influential man named "David Ross" (Earl Dwire) gathering some local citizens to form a vigilante group with the intention of chasing out some of the less desirable people who have been causing problems. To aid in this project, David calls upon the Three Mesquiteers to help him out. Sure enough, the plan works out and the town quickly returns to normal. Unfortunately, having seen how powerful a vigilante gang can be, one particularly unscrupulous individual decides to take it a step further and use the idea to extort innocent people of their livelihoods--and then shift the blame to David Ross for ulterior purposes. Even worse, in order to protect his reputation, the Three Mesquiteers only make things that much worse. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a solid addition to the Three Mesquiteer series which focused a bit more heavily on "Stony Brooke" (Robert Livingstone) than his other two comrades. And that's fine. In any case, while this certainly wasn't the best in the series, it passed the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

If you've seen a few Three Mesquiteer films, there's a good chance you noticed that the line-up of the trio changed all the time. For a short while, even John Wayne played one of these western do-gooders. In this installment, Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune star as the traveling lawmen/social workers!

The story begins with an odd message...that the best way to combat lawlessness is to organize a citizens' vigilante committee! However, although they are successful, afterwards an unknown baddie organizes his own vigilante group ('The Purple Vigilantes') and they begin the terror all over again!

Now here is where things get a bit dumb. Soon folks in the town accuse the original organizer of the first vigilante group of leading the new silly-dressed group. With no real evidence at all as well as the baddies preventing the Mesquiteers from testifying, the man is convicted and sentenced to die! Can the Mesquiteers figure out who is really behind all this not-niceness??

This is a typical and enjoyable Mesquiteer film in many ways. But the Purple Vigilantes are a sight to see! They wear Klan-like robes and look a lot like baddies from a movie serial (such as "The Undersea Kingdom" or "The Phantom Empire")....and they look completely ridiculous. What is cool is the voice of their leader (Billy Bletcher), as the man also voiced many cartoon character such as The Big Bad Wolf and Peg-Leg Pete. Overall, a silly looking but enjoyable film...typical of the Mesquiteers and other B-westerns of the era.

Davis Ross creates a group of vigilantes to drive out a casino owner who has a bad influence on the town. When a couple of members of the group realize that they could have the same influence on the innocent members of the town and clean up financially, they create the Purple Vigilantes headed by the mysterious Number One. When these vigilantes murder during their plundering, Ross is accused of being the head of this group while being completely innocent. Stony, Tucson, and Lullaby try to get Ross safely out of town, under the sheriff's watch, see their plan fail when the sheriff is killed and Ross is framed for the murder. The Three Mesquiteers try to find the secret to the Purple Vigilantes and discover it's leader who could be banker McAllister, lawyer Drake, or Jones, a mysterious stranger. Our heroes try many methods before trying to bait a trap with a record of their crimes. The first 40 minutes of the film shape up to be perhaps the best of the entire series with brilliantly filled action sequences, gunfights, and use of the caves as the HQ of the Vigilantes, but the climax of the film is really weak as a setup to the mystery villain's identity revelation as well as the final conflict against the Vigilantes. Fine film to watch, but could have been better. Rating, 6.