Continuity was not a big thing back in the day with A films let alone B film serials. The Three Mesquiteers in their various adventures flipped back and forth between the old west and the modern west. Overland Stage Raiders is about as modern as you can get in their stories though.The boys have decided to invest in an airline in this film. It seems as though the modern stage, make that bus, is constantly being held up and this seems a practical way to avoid robbers. Not to mention that Louise Brooks kind of perks John Wayne's interest.The robbers however are not to be denied. I have to say that this is the only western I know with a plane holdup. That in and of itself is enough reason to try and see this film.The once in a lifetime teaming of John Wayne and silent screen legend Louise Brooks is also a reason to see Overland Stage Raiders. Who would ever have figured on them as a screen team.Overland Stage Raiders is one of the best of the three Mesquiteer series with a very novel setting for a story.

What is curious about this picture is that the main protagonists: John Wayne (Stony Brooks - ha! ha! no?), Ray Corrigan (as Tucson Smith) and Max Terhune (as Lullaby Joslin) are actually very keen to liquidate their traditional existence as chivalrous knights errant on horseback. They actually want to invest in a project that will ensure that their traditional livelihood is destroyed. The project is to transport mail, gold and passengers across the high sierra by aeroplane. This will create another disconnect with the land to which these cowboys are rooted. However, they see it as just another investment which will maybe get them off horseback, out of penury and into automobiles.Odder still is the transposition of other modern technologies into a traditional western. The most obvious instance of this is the use of a bus (though not a Greyhound) as a 'stage'. I only imagine that Republic's props department had a tiny budget and so used a bus because they wanted to save cash on hiring an old stagecoach. So the bandits shoot not at varnished lumber but at steel and chrome. The cowboys are a pretty disparate bunch, and they actually seem to be rather dim. Terhune is accompanied by a dummy called Elmer with whom he engages in unfunny banter (he is not a gifted ventriloquist) - very strange. Almost sit-up-straight-and-goggle-in-amazement strange.Louise Brooks (as Beth Hoyt) has a wasted role. This was her swansong, and she was not to appear on screen again. Her career had reached a point of no return and she had to give it up, and she was dependent on hand outs from friends. The preceding six or seven years had not been at all kind to her. She looks almost unrecognisable. Her flapper bob has given way to a not overly flattering proto-Veronica Lake cut, and the lipstick is very overdone. Her beauty has vanished, and she lacks credibility as any form of love interest. Wayne is gallant in a pedestrian way and breezes through his part on cruise control.A curio of scant merit.

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.

A real solid class "B" western with a pre-John Ford John Wayne at his shooting and roping best. Second of the "Three Mesquiteers" series, the plot is both far-fetched and intriguing for its ingenuity. Who would expect to go to a Saturday matinée and see a second billed western that involves the tactical integration of aerial spotting in defense of overland lines of communication, communications deception, gas hand grenades used to defend an improvised landing strip, parachuting cowboys and passengers, the hijacking and retaking of a cattle train, a talking ventriloquist's dummy in flight gear, and an in-flight robbery -- all within less than an hour! A more thorough examination of the plot reveals that John Wayne is aligned with the common folks against the evil and unscrupulous capitalist bus company owner who will go to no end to prevent the loss of his lucrative contract to carry the gold. I mean this movie introduces some basic economic theory into its entertainment. Quite a lot to process within such a short time. The bad guys are either shot outright, roped and hog-tied, or beaten into submission. Oh yes, Louise Brooks plays a quite forgettable part as the sister of the pilot. Not your run of the mill film. Not well made with a very lackluster ending, but worth your time. This one is a hoot!