If you were to take every western ever made and categorize them, you'd probably find that a good 40% had something to do with wagon train rustlers, and that if seen back to back, the ones made between 1930 and 1945 all followed similar patterns. This one is practically identical to a dozen that I have seen in low budget Z grade programmers that probably played double bills together in cheap theaters and rarely were part of a bottom of the double or even triple bill. This is part of one of the many triple heroes together out to capture or kill these one dimensional villains, usually played by the same actors in black clothing and always with a mustache. The heroes here, named the Roughriders, are as good as good can get, and of course, there's the damsel in distress who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. The team of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton strive to keep this exciting, but it is simply just more of the same. As these films are normally under an hour and in the public domain, they end up on cheap DVD collections, featuring weak print transfers with wretched sound quality. Monogram had a few good B westerns, but this isn't one of them. This one is just too tedious and without humor. It took a lot to retain my attention.

"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...'

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 !