Red River Range

Over the course of the Three Mesquiteers series, the lineup changed all the time. The three cowboys featured in each film never was constant...and in this case John Wayne joins the more familiar Mequiteers (Tex Terhune and Ray Corrigan...who played in quite a few more films in the series). The series was enjoyable...and neither great nor poor. Compared to most B-westerns of the day, they were a bit better than average.

In this story, the Mesquiteers are, as usual, undercover agents working for the side of nicenss. They've arrived in town to investigate an insanely organized cattle rustling scheme...one that has a portable slaughterhouse that immediately processes the beef and cuts out the middleman. Can our handsome Mequiteers...and Max...manage to get to the bottom of all this?

This film is pretty typical of a Mesquiteer film, even with Wayne in the lead and the guys going undercover. As usual, Terhune whips out Elmer...his ventriloquist dummy!! I can't stand this and audiences back in the day must have groaned when they saw a couple dummies among the crime-fighters!

Red River Range (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

"B" Western from Republic has The Three Mesquiteers (led by John Wayne) trying to determine the cause of various cattle going missing. This is really no better or worse than the thousands of "B" films made during this period but you do have Wayne here, which puts it a notch above other films that did this very storyline. There's some nice action but the story is oh so predictable.

As of now, the only way to view these is on AMC but that means you also get commercials. Hopefully one day all the films will be released in a box set.

This film begins with cattle ranchers reporting that a significant number of their cattle have been stolen with no clues being left behind as to who might have taken them or how they were taken. Everything is a mystery. To that effect, not knowing where else to turn, the ranchers petition the governor for assistance and, rather than sending one investigator, he sends the Three Mesquiteers to check it out. To their surprise, once they arrive, they meet a friend named "Tex Reilly" (Kirby Grant) who has been hired by a private company to also investigate the situation. What none of them realize, however, is that the cattle rustlers have not only adopted an innovative system to avoid detection, but they also have a high-ranking member from the local town on their side who provides them with enough inside information to stay one step ahead. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay addition to the Three Mesquiteers series with John Wayne once again performing in the role of "Stony Brooke." Additionally, both Ray Corrigan (as "Tucson Smith") and Max Terhune ("Lullaby Joslin") also reprise their roles as well. Yet in spite of the solid performances of both John Wayne and Ray Corrigan, the film suffered--once again--from the exceedingly corny comic relief provided by Max Terhune. Maybe it's just me, but I don't find his ventriloquist act to be very entertaining. Be that as it may, although I don't consider this particular film to be one of the better additions to the series, I suppose it passed the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

One of the more enjoyable entrées in the Three Mesquiteers series is Red River Range which finds the boys working as government agents to stop some cattle rustling.

Unbeknownst to John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, and Max Terhune the meatpacking industry has hired its own agent, Kirby Grant, to get a line on the rustling. That in itself was an interesting aspect of this film, the inflation of meat prices as a result of cattle rustling. One never does think of the economic hurt, those rustlers cause.

Kirby's cover is blown before he can infiltrate and folks in the Red River country already know the Mesquiteers are coming. So Wayne and Grant switch places and Wayne poses as an escaped killer.

The focus of the investigation is a dude ranch where some mighty strange goings on are occurring. Can't reveal what the scheme, but I assure viewers it's a lulu.

A bit more comedy than usual in this film in the person of old vaudevillian Polly Moran, an amazonian tourist at the dude ranch with eyes on the Duke. Good thing the investigation was over as soon as it was because who knows what John Wayne might have had to do to keep his cover.

No matter what film John Wayne appears in he's always interesting to watch. Besides the fact that as an actor he was used by novelists and directors to reinvent the American west, as a personality he was endearing to watch, especially in this film where he is more important than the storyline.