Overland Stage Raiders (1938)

One of 51 westerns by Republic in the late '30s and early'40s, under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers. The identity of the 3 actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8, including this one. With a run time of 54 min., it packs in a lot of scheming and action. This is an early example of George Sherman directing B westerns for Republic. Later, he would do the same for Columbia and then for Universal. Here, Wayne, as Stony, Roy Corrigan as Tucson, and Max Trehune, as Lullaby, are the 3 Mesquiteers. The latter occasionally got out his puppet Elmer for a bit of ventriloquism. Famous(or infamous) Louise Brooks is the token woman, who flirts a bit with Wayne. This was her last film, at 32. She was more striking in silent movies. Here, she's nothing special. Reportedly, she detested Hollywood, preferring European films........ The film involves a bizarre mix of horse and contemporary motorized transport. The villains all ride horses, and hold up buses that are carrying much gold, as well as passengers. Given the state of most roads, the buses couldn't go very fast. Strange that we never saw a car or truck? Small airplanes are also featured as a hopefully less risky and faster means of transporting gold. However, the bad men associated with the president of the bus company make the maiden flight of the new air company a harrowing experience, killing the copilot, and making the other passengers jump out, at least wearing parachutes.(Too bad they didn't require metal detectors back in those days) However, the pilot foils their planned landing spot(apparently across the Mexican border) when he jettisons the remaining fuel(strange that there is such a knob!), necessitating an emergency landing on a mountain. See the film(available for free at YouTube) for the rest of this thread.......The film started out weirdly, with Stony parachuting from Ned Hoyt's small plane. He lands not far from where Tucson and Lullaby are moseying along. They even brought his horse along. Stony says he jumped out because the gold-carrying bus is about to be robbed. How does he know this? Assuming he didn't hear their plans, presumably he saw a cluster of horsemen by the bus route and made a guess as to what they were up to. Anyway, the 3 make it to the bus just in time to scare away the bandits. They get a $1000. reward. After talking to Ned, he decides to invest this money in a larger , more substantial, plane, capable of carrying passengers(This last capability was a mistake, as soon revealed, and hardly useful for such a small town). Stoney goes to the ranchers and asks them to sell their cattle, to buy a share in the new company.(According to Tucson, the price of beef was abysmally low, anyway) The cattle were loaded in box cars to be taken to market. But the bus company gang again appeared and took over the train. However, one of the ranchers got away and told the 3 Mesquiteers, who rode quickly to intercept the moving train, to board it or shoot at the henchmen sitting on top of one car, like so many blackbirds sitting on a wire. After losing some, the latter surrendered, as Stony brought the train to a stop. Presumably, the cattle eventually got to market, although this thread is abandoned at this point.

A very competent B western, well edited and scored, but of no consequence, beyond entertainment.Wayne is charming, Brooks in her 13 scenes in a supporting role, is vocally and facially competent as a sound film actress, but not in any way special. Any back lot actress could have acted the role as well. Her last film, and indeed, it was not a loss. She was special as a silent actress, but on the sound screen, she was mediocre to competent at best.

Other commentators have mentioned just about everything I would have noted about this kid western. Such westerns were made from the 20's through the 50's and featured cowboy heroes who generally wore white hats or rode white horses or both. Forget plot logic, characterization, and focus on horse riding, chases, and shoot 'em ups. The curious mix of the modern (a motor bus and an airplane) and the old (cowboys on horseback) in this film never makes you forget the traditional format of six guns shooting forever like a video game weapon and no visible damage to valuable props. Watch the airplane door used as a shield against bullets in one of the final scenes. No damage whatever.Louise Brooks is no more distinctive than any other leading lady in any other grade B westerns of the era. Yes, she does have long brown hair, almost shoulder length, not her trademark bangs; and she is slender and lissome. But her voice does not match her silent screen image. It surprises, if you have not heard it before. It is low pitched, not melodious, not distinctive in any way. Listen to Jean Arthur, Hepburn, Davis, oh, so many others, for example, and in a blind hearing there would be no mistaking the personality. The voice of Brooks is not memorable, nor in any way like the Lulu of our dreams. But, hey, it's her last screen appearance (other than the documentary many years later), and so it is prized.

Once upon a time this was just another Saturday matinée western from reliable Republic Studios. Now it has a small place in film history... and also happens to be a filmic hodgepodge bordering on insanity. At the time, it was John Wayne's second 'Mesquiteer' outing, after he took over the role of Stony Brooke from Robert Livingston. Apparently Livingston and co-star Ray "Crash" Corrigan didn't get along, so Wayne was given the role after he re-signed with Republic. Wayne was NOT a happy actor at the time, having tried to get out of Poverty Row westerns, but now he was back at Republic and making less money than before. Yet, his performance is not affected: he appears cheery throughout this film. Republic started making 'Mesquiteer' films in 1936 and went on to produce 51 of them, amazingly. As film history this one is noted for Wayne's appearance a year before he would finally get another crack at A-film stardom with 'Stagecoach' --- and because this is Louise Brooks final film performance. Sadly, it isn't much of a part and her acting is mediocre. And then there is the insanity---the most enjoyable aspect of the film. First off, it is a western about bandits on horseback trying to steal a gold shipment from a coach... but this is a contemporary western so the coach transporting the gold is played by a large, motorized, 1930's passenger bus. So, we get the sight of horse ridin' bandits shootin' and chasin' a BUS... and when they stop the bus then pull out and line up the passengers in classic, stagecoach robbing style, the 'Three Mesquiteers' charge up on horseback, guns blazing, to stop them. Fine... except the bandits are standing right next to the passengers, so the Mesquiteers are firing right into a crowd of innocent victims! Oh, and just before this scene we get the opening that features an airplane whizzing by Corrigan and fellow Mesquiteer Terhune, then a passenger falling out of the airplane... but not to his death because he's saved by his parachute. For some reason this short chain of events enrages Corrigan FOR NO APPARENT REASON and he gallops off to give the chutist a chin sandwich, but the chutist is revealed to be none other than ol' Duke Wayne himself.And the film makers race onward, heedless to logic, but gifted in ineptitude. For instance, there is the incompetence of a gunmen-on-train vs. horseback-posse battle with bullets flying everywhere but neither a horse or rider seemingly even grazed... then the train is stopped and the armed and uninjured gunmen atop the railroad car simply give up---for no apparent reason. There's more: You get a clumsy, badly staged fight scene with Wayne in the engine compartment of the locomotive; later, a final bit with Terhune suddenly a ventriloquist holding a flight-suited dummy named Homer; and, the topper, an outrageous scene wherein those same bandits go after YET ANOTHER gold shipment, this one on an AIRPLANE, and strap parachutes onto the passengers and boot them out of the plane: "Count to three and pull the cord, lady!" Is it any wonder that Wayne would recall these films with dismay.