It's still a mystery to me why Robert Livingston got top billing in the Three Mesquiteers flicks. Ray Corrigan had more charisma, was taller, better built and better looking, and just naturally appeared to be the leader of the trio. In this flick, Corrigan's character Stony Brooke even breaks ranks with his buddies, not that I blame him when it comes to the pretty senorita Rita Cansino. That would be Rita Hayworth for you non-Western fans, a genre in which she made a few early appearances while getting her career under way. You can catch her in the Tex Ritter film "Trouble in Texas", where she also does some singing and dancing, managing to stand out like so few female leads in these kinds of pictures.As for the Mesquiteers, they're off to a bumpy start with Stony on the outs with Tucson Smith (Corrigan) for most of the picture. Besides Rita, he's also defending a pinto stallion falsely accused of running a herd of wild horses responsible for death and destruction in their wake. Now just when I think I've seen about everything you can imagine after watching a few hundred Westerns, this one promotes the unlikely premise of the bad guys actually painting a horse to create a false identity! You read that right, painting a horse! I always thought the term 'paint' to describe a multicolored horse a bit of a misnomer, but this one set me straight, that's for sure.The idea behind this whole ruse was for villain McGowan (J.P. McGowan) to get a ban lifted against capturing wild range horses. With a contract to round up a thousand head, this was a quick buck he wasn't going to let slip away. Besides henchmen Harry Tenbrook and Yakima Canutt, McGowan's own horse Volcano was the linchpin of this operation masquerading as the pinto. Volcano and the paint wound up doing some serious battle once the action got under way, making me wonder how they managed to get the horses to mix it up the way they did.Fortunately, things wind up in favor of the Mesquiteers; Stony and Tucson eventually patch things up with a little help from Lullaby (Max Terhune) at the finale. For his part, Lullaby manages a couple of quick bits with his wooden dummy Elmer. Rita didn't stick around till the end of the story, as she took the money and ran when Tucson and Lullaby bribed her to go back East and leave Stony to come to his senses. Some pals!

Prohibited from taking wild horses off government lands, a villainous rancher uses a trained horse to wreak havoc and clear the way for him to take all the "nuisance" horses he wants. Meanwhile, Ray Corrigan, Bob Livingston, and Max Terhune are at odds over Bob's romance with beautiful gold-digger Rita Hayworth.This interesting, above average entry in Republic Pictures' Three Mesquiteers series is more offbeat than usual, with the unique premise of a horse being being used as a weapon to kick someone to death, Livingston's brooding performance, and a rare note of discontent among the three friends.In fact, the story is solid enough to have been turned (with a little work) into an A-list western!A satisfying climax features good animal footage and a neat stunt in which Yakima Canutt takes a dive off some steep rocks.My only complaint is that Hayworth's unpleasant character takes the money and runs instead of getting her just desserts. The finale should have shown her in New York, trying and failing to cash Corrigan's rubber check!

The fifth 'Three Mesquiters' Republic western has some unusual elements. Rita Cansino (Hayworth) is prominently featured as Stony Brooke's 'future wife'; Stony and Tucson have a major falling out, and a pinto stallion is put on trial for murder.In a buddy movie there's no room for wives (at least in the 1930s and 40s). Rita plays a saloon dancer, Rita, who plans to marry Stony (Robert Livingston). Naturally, Tucson (Ray 'Crash' Corrigan) and Lullaby (Max Terhume) think she's a 'gold digger,' and ultimately Lullaby scares her (and pays her) off. Stony and Tucson come to blows over Rita, and they don't get along for most of the movie, for this and another reason.You see, a pinto stallion has been accused of killing the sheriff, who was the Mesquiters best friend. Tucson becomes the new sheriff bent on capturing the stallion, but Stony feels the horse is innocent, especially when they discover the pinto has no horseshoes and the sheriff was killed by a shod horse. Of course, it was the villain who had painted a devil horse, Volcano, to look like a pinto, and Volcano had actually killed the sheriff. The movie should really have been called, "The Trial of the Pinto Stallion,' since Stony tries to defend the horse in jail to prevent Tucson from having it killed. Stony later quits the Mesquiters to join up with the evil Rance McGowan (J.P.McGowan), as their bad feelings towards each other escalate.The movie is watchable to see actual, not pretended, bad feelings emerge among the three heroes; and, of course, to see Rita Hayworth who sings a duet with Stony, and performs a dance to 'La Cucaracha.' Her dance moves, however, are pretty much the same ones she shows in 'Trouble in Texas' (1937) and even in 'Gilda' (1946), when she must have been the Farrah Fawcett-Majors of the 1940s with all that hair being tousled, flounced, flipped and spun while she was on screen whether dancing or not.Yakima Canutt appears and does his 'usual' amazing stunt work. There seems to be some snatches of music later used in 'Zorro's Fighting Legion' (1939). Despite all of the above, the movie only gets a four and half.

This film answers the question about a cowboy's greater love: for his woman or for his horse? Although the bond with his woman exceeds those between Stony and the other Mesquiteers (Tuscon and Lullaby), after THEY pay her to leave, Stony's still stickin' up for the horse. And rightly so. The horse ACCUSED of being violent, was actually framed by a TRAINED horse, owned by a guy who wants the protection of hundreds of wild equines to be lifted so that he can round 'em up. Stony does a duet with his girlfriend, billed as Rita Cansino, who later became better known as Rita Hayworth. But, to hell with her...it's the HORSE that's important: an example of the order of priorities which is responsible for my opinion about this movie: things somewhat outta place.