The Riders of the Whistling Skull (1937)

By the humble standards of the Three Mesquiteers, this is definitely one of the more exciting entries in the series with plenty of fast-moving action – especially in the 53-minutes TV cutdown version which seems to be the only one now available on DVD. There is a bit of a jump in the storyline where the excision has been made, but it's easy enough to paste together what's happening even if the events are dime-novel absurd. It's amazing to think that director Mack Wright managed to shoot this one in only eight days. Diminutive heroine, Mary Russell, played mostly bits in her Hollywood career (1934 through 1938) – and no wonder. She's an attractive little lass and she knows her lines, but that's about all that can be said for her. Also on the plus side, we see and hear very little of Max Terhune's Elmer in this TV version, although there was probably not much more in the full 59 minutes theatrical offering – especially when we remember that 59 minutes would translate to under 57 minutes on TV and DVD. (My DVD is Volume 32 in Platinum's Great American Western series).

There were a long string of Three Mesquiteer films during the 1930s. The films consisted of three friends who were government agents in the old West and the films were very low-budget B-movies. However, the lineup changed all the time--and there must have been about two dozen different lineups--including, for a while, a young John Wayne. Among the most consistent lineup for the series were Crash Corrigan, Robert "Whistling Skull" begins with a member of a lost expedition arriving in town. He begins talking about some lost Indian treasure--and then is suddenly killed with a poison-tipped knife. So, the Boys and their new friends all go in search of the lost party--and possibly find the treasure as well. Livingston and Ray Terhune. Oddly, Terhune's shtick was having Elmer (his ventriloquist dummy) and--a very strange thing indeed for the West! While I'll quickly admit that these weren't particularly good films (I've seen a lot with this particular lineup), they were reasonably fun and worth seeing if you like the genre. However, among the Mesquiteer films I have seen, this must be the very worst--mostly because the acting is simply atrocious. I am not exaggerating when I say that many of the extras repeat their lines like they are reading them off cue cards...and they were dyslexic! In addition, the plot, though original, was truly bizarre.By the way, in addition to the weird plot and bad acting, the language was often amazingly offensive--even for 1937. My favorite line is "...those dirty ignorant savages" when members of the search party meet up with natives.

Usually it eludes me, but sometimes the past comes and smacks me with its ridiculous tragedies. Ridiculous now.When I park my car at work, it is opposite the back of what used to be a Woolworth's drug store. I see a misused window. That is where "coloreds" had to get their food, lest they annoy the whites. This was in my lifetime. I visited that store as a child when this was the law. Now, the building is a bar owned by an African American sports figure.Recently, I saw "Avatar," and celebrated the defeat of the interlopers. Avatar was (still is as I write this) a big movie. But it is a very small presence in movieland compared to this, because this is merely one of thousands. Written in a day, shot in a week, in the theaters in a months and discarded a month later. The same characters, the same plots. I count this as one face of ten thousand movies.Here is the plot: white guys from far away come to "Indian territory." They are looking for an ancient collection of artifacts. They happen to have value when melted down, but are also central to a religious tradition thousands of years old. Natives try to protect this treasure, and they are the BAD guys!This is a pastiche: part jungle safari, part mystery, part comedy, part western. It is, in fact, an "every-movie." The whistling skull is a cliff in the shape of an Indian face spooked out to look like a skull. It is, predictably, hollow.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

It looks like this film might have been trying to capitalize on the success of the Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty jungle films of the 1930's, as part of the cast is outfitted in safari suits, but that's about as far as the jungle connection goes. "Riders of the Whistling Skull" is one of the cooler sounding titles coming out of the early Western era, and it's somewhat off the beaten path for the Three Mesquiteers. The trio must lead a small party past a cult of fanatic Indians on the way to an enormous treasure of lost gold, while knowing that there's probably a traitor in their midst. The story line is a bit of a relief from the classic Western programmer in which a villainous town boss attempts to hoodwink local ranchers out of their property rights, and you know the 3M's had a fair share of those stories as well.The coolest thing about this flick is that rugged mountain cliff that actually resembles an Indian face. With the wind whipping through the canyon, it wasn't too tough to come up with the whistling skull connection. The other scene to keep on the lookout for is that wild horse spill that Miss Betty Marsh (Mary Russell) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune) take when their horses are tripped up by a rope across the trail. It's the first and only time I've actually been able to see a trip wire used to make the horses go down, and it always amazes me to see the broncs get back up. You can chalk up the stunt work to veteran Yakima Canutt who also pulls double duty in the picture as Indian guide Otah, even though he's virtually unrecognizable.There were a couple of things that didn't make sense to me as some of the action scenes played out, but that's not unusual. Keep an eye on the scene when Tucson (Ray Corrigan) makes his way down a rock face and an Indian cuts his rope. Stony (Robert Livingston) is standing on the ledge where he knocked the Indian off, and when the rope breaks, the end of it is at Stony's waist level. Couldn't Stony have just held on to the rope below the cut to prevent the rope from breaking? I also had to wonder why Tucson's shirt sleeve was missing after he tumbled down the cliff, how exactly does that work? If you're keeping score, this is the fourth in Republic's series of Three Mesquiteers films, and the third featuring Livingston, Corrigan and Terhune as the title characters, (Syd Saylor appeared in the first flick as Lullaby). Some fans find it to be one of their best, but I'll have to reserve judgment. I think Lullaby's dummy Elmer should have had a larger role.