Roarin' Lead (1936)

Fantastic!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I never expect brilliance from a Three Mesquiteers movie. After all, they were cheap B-westerns and Monogram Studio churned them out by the dozen. However, even compared to the level of quality I expected, this one is awfully bad. Not only does it feature the usual cowboy film clichés but it also has orphans...and these orphans, unfortunately, like to sing and dance. As a result, it's a syrupy sweet and slightly nauseating film.When "Roarin' Lead" begins, an evil administrator is not only working with his gang to rustle cattle but this meanie wants to close down the orphanage and sell the children as slaves! Fortunately, the Mesquiteers arrive and put a stop to all the shenanigans. Unfortunately, this also means a big charity benefit for the orphans--complete with (yuck) Tex Terhune and his god-awful puppet and the worst singing and dancing I can recall that isn't attributable to a seizure disorder or demonic possession. My guess is that the audience had to pay in order to get to leave and that's how they raised all the money for the kids! Overall, it's a real chore to see this one from start to finish.

This 3 Mesquiteer film finds our heroes trying to stop cattle rustling and save an orphanage at the same time. Inconceivable but the same villain wants to close down an orphanage is also behind a lot of cattle rustling and the dastardly deeds are connected.Ray Corrigan, Robert Livingston, and Max Terhune happen to be the trustees of said orphanage and they put a stop to the closing temporarily. As it turns out the Cattleman's Association provides the funds, but they're going broke as well with all the rustling and the insurance payments going out. Cattle rustling had to be stopped to save the orphanage permanently.Not one of the better plotted films of the series and I agree with the previous reviewer the gimmick where the beans are spilled is pretty lame.

What got my attention right out of the gate was how young the principles were in this early Three Mesquiteers outing - Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune, the trio that participated in the most number of films as the title characters. "Roarin' Lead" was only the third film in the series that eventually stretched to fifty one pictures, so it's not surprising that the boys still had that youthful appearance.As for the story, and this is not meant as a put down, but it's a largely forgettable one that once again explores a crooked town boss (Hooper Atchley) who's taking out local ranchers via the old rustlers stealing cattle gimmick, but with a bit of a twist. Hackett (Atchley), as president of the Cattlemen's Protective Association, was paying out insurance claims on the stolen beef, but with funds running low, he intended to foreclose on the local orphanage, thereby adding a valuable piece of real estate to his holdings. Bad mistake - the Mesquiteers turn up as the trustees of the Clark Estate, majority stake holders in the company that owns the orphanage.What's different about this early oater is the inclusion of a variety show put on by the orphans who try to save their home. I would never have thought about the possibility, but Miss Doris (Christine Maple) actually frowned on adoption if it meant that the children would go to parents whose only intent was to use the kids as 'slave labor' on their respective ranches. That term - 'slave labor' - was used more than once, and really made me think about how kids might have been taken advantage of in a situation that presumably would have been for their benefit.Hey, did you catch that cliff jump into the lake by Stony (Livingston) and Tucson (Corrigan) to escape the bad guy posse? And you thought that Butch and Sundance scene was entirely original!I was surprised at the amount of screen time given to Yakima Canutt as henchman Canary, since he wasn't Hatchett's top gun, but reporting to George Chesebro's Captain Gardner. But the Swami gimmick that exposes Yak with an injured wrist was pretty lame, with Hackett making his own matters worse by trying to gun the good guys in a crowded hall. There wasn't too much thought put into these stories when you come right down to it, but if you're a fan like me, you're willing to cut everyone involved a little slack.Not too much more to add except for the puzzler ending - Did Lullaby (Max Terhune) really adopt Bobby???!!!