Overland Stage Raiders

When a bus is held up and robbed of its gold bullion, the local mining company are persuaded into using alternative transport - an airplane service sponsored by the Three Mesquiteers. But the bus operators plan to sabotage their efforts .

The 3 mesquiteers are a combination of modern west and old west, the former takes more prominence in this entry with a plane being used for shipping gold, and what you get is a hijacking, great aerial views, parachuting, and communication deception - not to forget plenty of shooting and chasing, the standard features in this fun escapist adventure. And that's how you should see them as - pure escapism.

Silent movie actress Louise Brooks co-stars and does a good job, though it not a too showy role. John Wayne and co. Are on top form, riding, shooting, even using smoke grenades to get the job done - and that is to stop the baddies.

A 30's Western where there are cars, there is a train... and there is a plane! Well, a Western with an airplane is quite unusual. Despite that, it is a very conventional and unpretensious Western, whitout any deepness or subtancial innovation. This B-Western from "Three Mesquiteers" franchise is starred by John Wayne as the leading man of the three (the three raiders changed from film to film, but the two other actors were the most frequently recurring in the series; Wayne played Stony Brooke in seven other flicks). Young and still cheerful John Wayne, with his long white good-cowboy hat, and with his equally white horse to highlight him among all the others (as if his height were not enough!), has all opportunities to ride, chase, flirt, fight, shoot, propose partnership in aircraft business, investigate, and protect mining company's gold, followed by his two sidekicks. In the very latest film of her career, silent cinema star Loise Brooks has a unremarkable supporting role.

Continuity was not a big thing back in the day with A films let alone B film serials. The Three Mesquiteers in their various adventures flipped back and forth between the old west and the modern west. Overland Stage Raiders is about as modern as you can get in their stories though.

The boys have decided to invest in an airline in this film. It seems as though the modern stage, make that bus, is constantly being held up and this seems a practical way to avoid robbers. Not to mention that Louise Brooks kind of perks John Wayne's interest.

The robbers however are not to be denied. I have to say that this is the only western I know with a plane holdup. That in and of itself is enough reason to try and see this film.

The once in a lifetime teaming of John Wayne and silent screen legend Louise Brooks is also a reason to see Overland Stage Raiders. Who would ever have figured on them as a screen team.

Overland Stage Raiders is one of the best of the three Mesquiteer series with a very novel setting for a story.

Seeing Louise Brooks' last film appearance raises more questions than it answers. When I first saw this, I had never heard any LB audio. I supposed that she was one of those silent film stars kept from talkies and from stage success by poor vocal performance. Her speech was just fine, even if she came off as someone more dynamic (and well-dressed) than her character. When LB moved to NYC, surely she could have had all the radio work she might have wanted. It makes her actual choices all the more baffling.

There is an inanimate co-star: a Spartan Executive Model 7W airplane. That was a very advanced, fast four-seater. Googling the tail number, I learned much about its interesting subsequent history--and that it still flies! As the plot called for an air transport plane, there are interior shots of a good-sized airliner cabin. It is like the tardis--with an interior incongruously larger than its exterior.

During the course of the Three Mesquiteers series from Republic Studios, the lineup of the three leads changed often. For a short time, John Wayne even was the main star in this series.....and "Overland Stage Raiders" is one of these films.

The story is a weird sort of amalgum of the old west and modern times....sometime Republic also sometimes did with their Gene Autry and Roy Rogers westerns. For example, you see folks riding about on their horses, using their six-shooters and sporting cowboy hats....but you also have buses, airplanes and telephones! Weird...that's for sure.

Well, this odd plot begins with an attempted robbery on the bus...and the Mesquiteers manage to arrive just in time to thwart it. Stony (Wayne) has an idea to avoid such robberies...to fly the gold shipments out instead of taking them by bus. The local ranchers all agree to help fund the air service...but, of course, you have a baddie who is determined to make it fail. And, in a ridiculous scene, you have a member of this air service griping and saying that he'll one day get his revenge. Take a WILD guess who the turncoat will happen to be who helps the baddies steal the plane?! Can the Mesquiteers manage to make things right?

This is pretty much what you see in any Mesquiteer film...a fast-paced plot, decent acting AND bad plot holes as well as Max Terhune using his ventriloquism skills! I have no idea WHY they had Terhune's character bringing his dummy Elmer with him everywhere and it's pretty stupid. It ONLY might have worked if in the final showdown you see Elmer taking shots at the baddies with a gun...that would have been marvelous. As it is, it's a flawed but agreeable B-western and no more...and a chance to see Wayne just before he hit super-stardom.