One of 51 Republic westerns, in the late '30s and early '40s, under the banner of The Three Mesquiteers: a combination of mesquite and musketeers. The identity of the 3 actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8, including this one. With a run time of only 55 min., it packs in a lot of scheming and action. It's an early example of the directing of B movies by George Sherman. He would eventually move to Columbia, then to Universal, always directing almost exclusively B westerns. Here, Wayne is Stony, Ray Corrigan is Tucson, and Max Trehune is Lullaby. The latter occasionally gets out his dummy: Elmer, to practice his ventriloquism....... Nancy(Carole Landis) is running a circus. Her financial manager, George Ward(Ralph Graves)receives a(planted) letter offering to buy her inherited ranch for $2000. George recommends she sell it, but she balks, saying some year she wants to retire to that ranch. Besides, she doesn't need the money, as her circus brings in enough income. George, who is the inside man for a ring of villains, tells Steve about his disappointment. They decide to stage a number of dramatic 'accidents' to make the people afraid to come to the circus. Thus, the lion cage is unlatched, resulting in pandemonium. Then, a tent is set on fire. Soon, lawsuits also eat into the profits, and the circus has to fold. George again recommends that she sell her ranch, but she's determined to move there........It happened that the 3Ms had a ranch (the 3M) adjacent to Nancy's ranch, called the WE. It also happened that the sign for the 3M ranch had been knocked upside down, so that it read WE. So, when Nancy was looking for her ranch, she and a few circus people moved into the 3M ranch house, before the 3Ms returned. She was so enthusiastic about the house, the 3Ms were afraid to tell her it was the wrong house, her real house being not nearly so nice. Thus, initially, they pretended that the WE ranch was theirs. George soon arranged to set the WE barn on fire, hoping to scare Nancy into selling.......Nancy gets a letter from the government offering to buy her ranch for $75,000., as they want to build a dam there.(George had previously gotten a similar letter, hence why he was so set on buying the ranch for a pittance). This would be enough to start up another circus. However, the actions of the 3Ms have made this transaction problematic. See the movie (available at YouTube) to find out the problem and what the 3Ms did to solve it.......Nancy's circus remnant included Collette Lyons, as Lillian, and Willie: the Gorilla, who provide occasional humor. Lillian is the stereotypical sexy blond bimbo. When she got to the ranch, she asked how long it would take to learn to milk a chicken? Willie, of course, was Ray Corrigan, in a gorilla suit. Every now and then he would scare somebody or get into mischief........This was still early in the film career of Carole Landis, who wasn't in many westerns. Less than a decade later, she would take an overdose of sleeping pills. She was depressed about her revolving door romantic life. Also, her movie career seemed to be stalled. In addition, she had a number of health issues, including some residual problems acquired in the South Pacific when she was entertaining GIs during the war. Finally, she was disappointed by her endometriosis negating the possibility ofhavingchildren

Another Three Mesquiteers western from Republic starring John Wayne, Max Terhune, and Ray 'Crash' Corrigan. This one has the trio helping out beautiful circus owner Carole Landis who's being robbed by villain Ralph Graves. An enjoyable B western that's probably my favorite of the Three Mesquiteer films I've seen. Lovely Carole Landis is partly responsible for that. Also the circus characters are fun, particularly Billy Curtis and Collette Lyons. They provide more humor than usual for this series. Corrigan has a second role in this one playing a gorilla. He was very familiar with that role, having been in quite a few ape suits in films before his western career. He would return to ape suits after the western well dried up. For his part John Wayne is solid as usual but there are no hints at his future superstardom here. Stagecoach had already been released so Duke was no doubt just biding his time until his contract was up and he could be done with these throwaway low-budget westerns. Comedy and a nice supporting cast make this a better than average B western of the period.

For Western film fans and trivia enthusiasts, this one is a blast! Not only do you have John Wayne teaming up with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune as the Three Mesquiteers, but also one of the most clever twists you'll ever find in a 'B' Western. Nancy Evans (Carole Landis) is the owner of the West-East Traveling Circus, as well as a ranch she inherited from her grandfather. When unscrupulous businessman Mike Abbott (Johm Merton) learns of an offer from the railroad to purchase her ranch for seventy five thousand dollars, he tries to swindle her out of it with the help of Evans' business manager George Ward (Ralph Graves). However instead of selling the ranch to pay off legal attachments as a result of the villains destroying the circus, Nancy instead decides to live there. But in a case of mistaken identity, Nancy and her circus friends arrive at the '3-M' ranch, home of the Mesquiteers; the sign on the property was turned upside down to look like it read 'W-E'!!! The movie also answers the question of how the Three Mesquiteers came by that name. In an early scene, the three buddies are shown heading for their home in Mesquite County, Texas. I've seen a number of the Mesquiteers films, but this is the only one that offered an insight into the origin of the name for the trio.It's not that rare to have a leading lady in a 'B' Western, what's more unusual is to have a second pretty female get into the act. In this one, Evans has a friend and circus employee named Lillian (Collette Lyons), who winds up with the best lines in the film. In addition to the comment in my summary line above (directed to Willie the circus ape!), she also fires off a comical response to Wayne's character Stoney Brooke, when he tells her he's a cowhand - "Ooh, if I could only learn to moo!" She also wonders 'how long it takes to milk a chicken' when first arriving at the ranch.Say, if there's something oddly familiar about the midget strongman Hercules, that's none other than Billy Curtis, who had quite a film career. He was the Munchkin City Father in "The Wizard of Oz", and had a notable role as Clint Eastwood's ally Mordecai in "High Plains Drifter". If you check out his filmography on this site you'll be quite surprised at his many and varied roles.There's an unusual cast credit listed for this movie that caught my eye, that of Naba as Willie the Gorilla, but I'm not so sure of that. Fans of Ray "Crash" Corrigan know that he appeared in many movies of the 1930's and 40's dressed in a gorilla suit, with names like The White Gorilla, Nbongo, Zamba, and my personal favorite, White Pongo. Or maybe Corrigan inherited the gorilla costume from Naba and decided it would be a hoot of a second career.Oh, and I don't want to forget to mention Roscoe Ates, appearing in the movie as Sheriff Brown of Mesquite. He's not as colorful here as in some of his other Westerns, but it's still fun to see him. Ates was a regular sidekick in a bunch of Eddie Dean Westerns, going by the name of Soapy Jones.Regular followers of John Wayne will note an improvement in his fighting style over the years since his Lone Star movie days in the mid 1930's. Back then, Wayne would employ huge roundhouse swings when matching fists with a villain, but here he looks much more natural in the fisticuffs department.Max Terhune, as Lullaby Joslin, generally handles the comic relief chores when he appears as a Mesquiteer, and here once again he uses a dummy as part of a ventriloquist routine; he did the same in "Range Defenders". There's one funny scene where he gets dunked in a water trough by Willie the Gorilla, but you'll wind up asking yourself who manned the dummy while Lullaby was all wet!If you'd like to know more about The Three Mesquiteers series of Westerns, there's a great website called 'The Old Corral', the best I've seen dedicated entirely to 'B' Westerns. You'll find separate commentary on each of the starring Mesquiteers in this movie, along with a history of The Mesquiteers and all of the actors who portrayed them in a total of fifty one films. Check it out at: http://www.bwesterns.com/trio3m.htm

After the success of 'Stagecoach', as well as seeing his wife give birth to their second child, Patrick Wayne, the previous year, the 32 year old John Wayne continued to act in westerns and immortalize the American West.