The Night Riders

The cast of the Republic Three Mesquiteers series was never consistent, with the various three leading men everchanging. For a while, the lead was played by John Wayne, but considering that his career was taking a fast turn for the better, it's not surprising he soon left the series. "The Night Riders" is one of these Mesquiteer films featuring Wayne.

In this installment, a baddie poses as Don Luis de Serrano, a Spanish nobleman. He creates a phony land grand deed with the help of another local jerk and now goes to court and seeks control of 13,000,000 acres. Then, he taxes everyone to death and is a general nuisance. So, it's up to the Mesquiteers to take the law into their own hands to stop Don Luis. And, perhaps, along with the help of the ill-fated President Garfield as well!

This film marks a first. Lullaby's really annoying and strange use of ventriloquism in the old west is strange and way out of place. But in a first, it actually comes in handy in a scene early in the film. Heck, it might be the first time Lullaby did ANYTHING much to help!

Overall, a father formulaic but enjoyable installment in the series. It's also unusual because the message seems to be 'if the law doesn't work, take it into your own hands or resort to mob rule and vigilanteism'! Strange but worth your time is you like B-westerns.

Talbot uses a phony land grant to rule thirteen million acres, taxing everyone heavily and evicting those who won't pay. The Three Mesquiteers becomes mysterious "night riders" to fight this evil.

Typical Three Mesquiteers entry that has a right amount of humour, intrigue and action. This time the trio are wearing masks and capes while fighting against greedy landowners. Therefore this entry has a swashbuckling feel a la Zorro but without swords. Enjoyable western.

By this time Wayne was a big star - thanks to Stagecoach- however he had to complete Mesquiteers films for republic. In the Mesquiteers he's quite cheerful and takes leadership.

The Three Mesquiteers were able to jump through time from one film to another. In The Night Riders, newspaper headlines are used in transitions between scenes, and those newspapers show dates in 1881. So, there are no automobiles or radios in this one, just horses and telegraphs.

There is a nice plot that sets up the action for The Night Riders. A corrupt former engraver for the U.S. Mint and a crooked riverboat gambler team up to pull off a land swindle using a forged Spanish land grant. The forger, Hazleton, orchestrates everything by having Talbot, the gambler and former actor, pose as Don Luis Serrano. Immediately they start taxing and evicting the settlers on 13,000,000 acres of land.

The Don's henchmen and an apprehensive sheriff run the Mesquiteers off of their ranch, and the Mesquiteers see others dealt the same fate. Stony makes a perfect John Wayne speech about what America means, and writes to President Garfield for help. The President is bound by the laws of the country and cannot help. Not content to let the Don take every settler's land, the Mesquiteers become Los Capaqueros, three masked riders that rob the tax collectors and give the money to ranchers facing eviction. As Los Capaqueros, the Mesquiteers accidentally meet with President Garfield, who is on a cross country tour. Garfield promises his help if the Mesquiteers can find evidence of something illegal. Eventually the Don raises an army to search for Los Capaqueros, and the Mesquiteers find a way to get themselves included so they can infiltrate the Don's compound. Stony is determined to prove that the Don is really Talbot. Everything ends with justice being served in Mesquiteers fashion.

I have not seen all of the Mesquiteers films, but I have never seen a "3 M Ranch." Perhaps it only existed for this one film as a plot device. In almost every other movie the Mesquiteers have been some kind of federal agents, but in The Night Riders they have absolutely no connection with law enforcement at all. I must assume that the script was written without the Three Mesquiteers in mind, and adapted to fit the team later.

The Night Riders has a cast with many of the B western regulars. It was fun looking for all the familiar faces. Glenn Strange and Horace Murphy are uncredited, but they both have more significant parts than the credited Tom London. Kermit Maynard had been a leading man shortly before this film. Sadly, he was destined to play supporting parts from around the time this movie was made onward. It was interesting to see Tom Tyler as one of the bad guys, because within a couple of years he would play the part of Stony Brooke through the end of the Mesquiteers series.

Confession: I nearly always find early b-Westerns more or less enjoyable, there's usually a lot of pleasant easy familiarity and a lot of dated stuff that can or should be forgiven. Just switch off the analysin'. John Wayne made approximately one million of these swift potboilers before he made his name – the same year as Night Riders. Even good old Gene Autry didn't make as many.

Baddies forge old document proving the legality of their claim to thirteen million acres of land – they promise fairness to the tenants but deliver harshness, endless taxes and death instead. How very like all politicians always! Wayne and his two sidekicks object to this and begin a fightback as mysterious caped crusaders – Los Capaqueros replacing The Three Mesquiteers. It's the usual stuff, sub-Zorro fisticuffs and shootouts complete with self conscious melodrama: therefore all I'd hoped for, nothing more. Wayne's cohorts Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune kept on mining the b-picture vein throughout the '40's while Wayne began his climb to superstardom and the making of many movie classics. Highly enjoyable non-serious time-filler!

Less a review than curious about some odd similarities. Night riders in the 1880's were in the Klan and terrorized ex-slaves and those who even slightly aided them. They also attacked catholics and immigrants. The bad guy was based on a real man but the heroes are not. These heroes ride at night, wear white outfits, with capes, and hat masks. They steal from the bad guys and give money to poor white people. Admittedly they don't have points on the hat masks but that is a weird coincidence. Especially because this stuff was well-known in the 30's , they were at their largest and most powerful in 1928.