Pals of the Saddle (1938)

Pretty Good

Best movie ever!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Director: GEORGE SHERMAN. Screenplay: Betty Burbridge, Stanley Roberts. Based on characters created by William Colt MacDonald. Photography: Reggie Lanning. Film editor: Tony Martinelli. Music director: Cy Feuer. Producer: William Berke.Copyright 20 August 1938 by Republic Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 28 August 1938. 6 reels. 55 minutes.COMMENT: First of the Wayne "Three Mesquiteers" saves all its action for the final reel. Worth the wait if you're prepared to sit through a plethora of extremely dull scenes, complete with tedious dialogue to match. True, the players do make some enthusiastic attempts to liven things up. Perhaps over-enthusiastic. And it's hard to put down Duke Wayne, even when confronted by a wooden, if pretty heroine and a rather lackluster set of villains. Production values were so strapped in the first half of the picture that director George Sherman was obliged to put himself into the dude ranch hotel scenes in order to flesh out the rather sparse "crowd" of guests. The childish story with its contemporary nervous pre-war time setting (which allows the use of some ancient stock footage for openers) comes over as so laughably inept in plotting and dialogue (and often in performances as well) as to make Pals of the Saddle an unintentional but nonetheless very effective lampoon that modern audiences will doubtless enjoy!.

In 1938, Republic Pictures decided to use Robert Livingston in feature films, including "The Lone Ranger Rides Again" serial. Needing a replacement for Livingston in The Three Mesquiteers franchise, they turned to John Wayne who came along to Republic in 1936 with the merger of several 'B' film companies. Wayne had appeared in sixteen films for Paul Malvern's Lone Star Pictures group released through Monogram. Though he made six films for Universal in 1936/37, they weren't very successful, so back at Republic, he became Stony Brooke, teaming up with Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Tucson Smith, and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin; "Pals Of The Saddle" was their first effort together. There's no doubt as to who the headliner was, as lobby cards and posters of the films during Wayne's run highlight his up and coming star status. I don't know when Terhune first began to use a ventriloquist dummy, but Elmer appears here with a limited speaking role, his parts would grow as the series progressed!The story itself is a fairly spirited one, accompanied by a lively musical soundtrack. I had to chuckle over the main plot element, a fictitious material called 'monium' was being mined and smuggled to a foreign government by the villains of the piece to be used as an ingredient in a poisonous gas. At the time historically, America was trying to maintain it's neutrality while Europe was being threatened by Hitler. More than one of the Charlie Chan films of the era used a similar story line, and I had to do a quick double take to stay on track. These later Mesquiteers films seemed to exist in somewhat of a 'time warp', as 1880 style cowboys did their thing as the modern 1930's managed to intrude. In the opening scene, newsreel stock footage is used to portray a military battle with an armored tank plainly visible!Stony and the boys decide to help out a female government agent (Doreen McKay) smoke out the bad guys involved in the smuggling operation. In a somewhat convoluted series of events, the good guys and bad guys manage to trade the upper hand a few times before it's all over. During one of these, Lullaby springs Stony from the locals holding him for a murder frame-up using a 'Chicken Inspector' badge. I got a kick out of Judge Hastings (Joseph Forte), the brains of the bad guy outfit, as the 3-M's take off in a covered wagon with the contraband monium on board. Calling his men to action, he yells "...we want to try and save that gold." He must have gotten his story lines mixed up! Wayne, Corrigan and Terhune would remain together for six Mesquiteers movies, with Ray Hatton taking Max's place in two more playing the role of Rusty Joslin, Lullaby's brother. In the latter part of Wayne's run, Republic and director John Ford tapped him for the lead role in "Stagecoach". When Wayne eventually left the Mesquiteers, he in turn was replaced as circumstances would have it, by Robert Livingston. The trio series would continue for a few more years with even more replacements. Between 1936 and 1943, Republic churned out a total of fifty one of these oaters!At the present time, AMC seems to be running the John Wayne Mesquiteers films on an alternating schedule during it's Saturday and Sunday lineup. If you're a fan, you owe it to yourself to catch at least one of these featuring a young John Wayne before he became 'The Duke', and you'll have a lot of fun to boot!

If you have any partiality towards B oaters then this is impossible not to like. In fact, it is in my Top 10 for this category of less-than-A sagebrush sagas. Some complain the emphasis in the Wayne Mesquiteer movies was on him and not the group. I think the camaraderie aspect is handled with gusto by director George Sherman right up front in the story and suitably reinforced throughout the plot. Granted, Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin has too many "I'll look after the horses!" moments but he is not left to get lost. Ray Corrigan as Tucson Smith has wonderful times of camera mugging, a comedic style for which he has never been properly acknowledged. John Wayne, is, well, John Wayne, a presence to be reckoned with. The Duke's "Listen Mr. Big Chest" remark to Corrigan as they duel verbally over the femme interest is a great moment. Undoubtedly unscripted.This Mesquiteer epic also has more plot, more action and more stunts than most in the series. Hey, and a flag-wavin', patriotic story line that takes you right back to a kinder era. Herbert Yates, the head of Republic Pictures, obviously knew what (who) he had on contract and was actually investing in his product. It shows throughout the picture. The is a big B. And when the Mesquiteers do that triple-tandem leap onto a moving covered wagon, well, you've got all the thrills, all the action and all the spirit of "all for one, one for all" trigger trio cowboy flick any fan could stand.

Remember Saturday mornings at the movies? This is a perfect example of the memories. Almost an hour of good guys, bad guys, pretty gal in trouble and gun play. Three saddle pals stop foreign spies from smuggling a dangerous chemical into Mexico. The chemical is used to make poison gas. Fast horses and stray bullets travel with the familiar generic background music.John Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan and Max Terhune are the saddle pals. Doreen McKay is the government agent that needs help catching the bad guys.