"Below the Border" is pretty typical of a Rough Riders film because it once again finds the heroes, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton all playing characters that are undercover--and pretending as if they are not friends and lawmen. In other words, the three always work independently but are actually all working for the same side...niceness.In this installment, the Rough Riders are investigating a gang who is holding up stage coaches. Buck poses as a customer on the stage and when it's held up, he is very helpful--hoping they'll eventually ask him to join the gang. McCoy plays a cattle buyer, as they're also investigating cattle rustling (this is a multi-talented gang). As for Hatton, as usual, he poses as a low-life--spending his time in town doing crappy jobs and keeping his eyes open to see what's cooking. And, to convince the gang that Buck is evil, he spends much of the film slapping and bullying poor Hatton. Why was Hatton always given these not too glamorous jobs?! For the most part, the rest of the film is very typical except for one scene near the end where Buck Jones plugs a guy--no beating him up or shooting him in the hand! This was a nice plus.One of the low points of this film is the performance of Linda Brent as 'Rosita'. Her performance as a Mexican lady is, frankly, worse than a no-talent kid in a high school play. Yes, she's pretty but the accent she puts on is LESS authentic than the Frito Bandito's! In fact, it's downright terrible and she couldn't act. Was she the producer's girlfriend or the studio chief's daughter?! All I know is that she's one of the worst actresses I've ever seen in a B-western--and that covers a lot of territory. While I'd normally give a film like this a 6, in this case I'm deducting a couple points due to Brent alone. She was THAT bad!By the way, one reviewer said that the series stopped because of WWII. This really wasn't the case. Sadly, it stopped because Buck Jones was tragically killed in a fire.

You've got to give Monogram some credit for the catchy Rough Riders theme song, it captures the spirit of the cowboy trio of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton rather nicely. Even though each of the cowboy stars was over fifty when the series was formed in 1941, the boys had a nice chemistry going that kept them popular with fans through eight pictures until World War II intervened; McCoy was an Army Colonel who returned to active duty!As far as 'B' Westerns go, "Below The Border" is a fairly entertaining story given the standard formula it's operating with. Working undercover, Marshal Buck Roberts (Jones) infiltrates a cattle rustling gang by impersonating an outlaw, while Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) poses as a hired hand in bad guy Scully's (Roy Barcroft) saloon. McCall's (McCoy) cover is that of a cattle buyer, and as each partner takes his position, the outlaw scheme begins to unravel. There's some suspense when Slade (Charles King), one of the baddies, fingers Buck Roberts as an impostor but he's taken down in a rather awkward showdown. Even more awkward is the way Roberts brings down Scully attempting to get the drop on him in a cave. Actually the scene is downright lame considering Scully had the entire advantage, but then the good guys would have been down to two.If you stop to consider that the characters of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton went back home respectively to Arizona, Wyoming and Texas in between adventures, in an era before motorized transportation, it's a virtual impossibility that they were able to complete eight investigations in the span of less than two years. But that certainly didn't bother theater goers back in the 1940's, who didn't really worry about those kinds of obstacles. Especially when that theme song started up again - 'The Rough Riders ride, beware...'

"Below the Border" was another entry in Monogram's popular "Rough Rider" series starring Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton. All three had been around since the 20s and were considered to be past their prime when they were cast together in this series.The premise of the series was that three marshals, Buck Roberts (Jones), Tim McCall (McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Hatton) would ride into a situation, Roberts from Arizona, McCall from Wyoming and Hopkins from Texas and clean up the problem.In this one, Roberts, posing as John Robbins is riding in a stagecoach with Mexican ladies Rosita Garcia (Linda Brent) and her Aunt Maria (Eva Puig) when it is held up by a gang of outlaws. The Garcia family jewels are taken with Roberts' apparent assistance.This was Buck's way of infiltrating the gang which is led by Scully (Roy Barcroft). In Scully's saloon, Sandy is working as a janitor. Tim arrives on the scene posing as a cattle buyer. We learn that the trio is there to avenge the murder of one of their marshal colleagues and break up a cattle rustling scheme run by Scully and his gang.The Garcia rancho is located "below the border" where Joe Cllins (Dennis Moore) is working with the bad guys in the rustling scheme with the proviso that they leave the Garcia's alone. When he learns of the jewel robbery he tries to leave the gang but................The Rough Riders eventually expose the villains and all are brought to justice, including gang members Charlie King, Bud Osborne and Kermit Maynard.The "Rough Rider" series was held together by the chemistry between the three stars. This made the mostly mediocre scripts better than they were. There was surprisingly little action, rarely a knock down drag out type "B" western brawl and hardly anyone ever got killed. But it worked. The series lasted for eight films and ended in 1942 when McCoy went back into the army and Jones died tragically in a fire, after making one more film with just Hatton, the same year. Hatton continued on with Johnny Mack Brown in 1943.

In another film in their great western series, Buck Jones, Colonel Tim McCoy and Ray Hatton go undercover to solve a jewelry theft along the Mexican border. They each work covertly to rein in the dastardly thieves and restore order to the area.Western film trios were popular during this era of film and this pairing was one of the best. Buck Jones and Tim McCoy were tough but personable on screen and ray Hatton was one of the best western character actors ever.This film was above average, with good action, plot and casting. This one compares favorably with many of the better films of that other cowboy trio, the Three Mesquiteers. Enjoy !