Texas to Bataan (1942)

That was an excellent one.

Sadly Over-hyped

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

John King (Dusty), David Sharpe (Davy), Max Terhune (Alibi), Marjorie Manners (Dallas), Budd Buster (Tad), Kenne Duncan (Captain Anders), Escolastico Baucin (Cookie), Frank Ellis (Richards), Carl Mathews (Engel), Guy Kingsford (Miller), Steve Clark (Conroy), Al Ferguson (Tuillax), Tom Steele (Lamac), Tex Palmer (Grob), and Max Terhune's "Elmer" (himself). Director: ROBERT EMMETT TANSEY. Screenplay: Arthur Hoerl. Photography: Robert Cline. Film editor: Roy Claire. Music director: Frank Sanucci. Songs by John King: "Me and My Pony", "Goodbye Old Paint". Production manager: Richard Ross. Sound recording: Lyle Willey. Producer: George W. Weeks. Executive producer: William Nolte. Range Busters, Inc. Copyright 11 September 1942 by Monogram Pictures Corporation. U.S. release: 16 October 1942. 7 reels. 56 minutes. (Available on an Alpha DVD on a double bill with Tumbledown Ranch in Arizona). U.K. release title: The LONG, LONG TRAIL.COMMENT: This better than average "Range Busters" entry features some excellent stuntwork. Director Tansey gives Hoerl's story pace if nothing else, while Frank Sanucci favors us with his usual rum-ti-tumti-tum music. Mr King adds to the Sanucci largess by rendering no less than three songs: "Home on the Range", "Me and My Pony" and "Goodbye Old Paint". Most of the action is set in Texas. But there is a brief interlude in Manila via some ancient stock shots.

The Range Busters were a series of films similar to the Three Mesquiteers films. And, like this other series, the makeup of the three characters changed quite a bit. In this case, the usual star of the films, Ray Corrigan, is gone and is replaced by the young stuntman, David Sharpe (who, frankly, looked like a high school kid). In addition, you have Max Terhune with Elmer (huh?!) and Dusty King. As for King, he sings a lot--something which I never particularly loved in these B-westerns. On top of that, his songs all are about horses. The first is REALLY weird (and a bit disturbing) as he sings on and on about his love for his horse! But what is even weirder is the plot. This one has to do with the Axis infiltration of the west--yes, the Axis!! Japanese and German spies abound and it's up to the trio to fight them with good 'ol Americanism! In addition to fighting the evil Axis out west, the Range busters inexplicably end up in the Philippines!! And, the Philippines soon were to fall to the Japanese meaning that apparently the Range Busters just weren't enough to thwart the entire Japanese Imperial Navy and Army.Now pretty much all of the Range Buster films were silly and had little to do with the old west. In fact, many (like this one) were set in the present day, many were not. Add on top of that there's the goof-ball Terhune who walks about with a ventriloquist dummy, King singing and spies, it's all a completely bizarre and silly hodgepodge. In fact, it's about the silliest western I've ever seen--apart from "The Terror of Tiny Town". Amazingly dumb and bad, this film is STILL worth watching for its kitsch value. It's so ridiculous and so perplexing to watch that it somehow is entertaining.

This entry from Monogram Pictures Range Buster series finds Dusty King, Davy Sharpe and Max Terhune replete with dummy sidekick Elmer and late of The Three Mesquiteers battling enemy aliens and spies from Texas To Bataan and back. You can hardly believe that the movie-going public even in those times took pictures like this seriously.Marjorie Manners sends for the Range Busters to help at her father Steve Clark's ranch where all kinds of strange things are happening. Clark has a contract to deliver horses to the army in the Phillipines and the boys have to battle fifth columnists on the home front. Then after making delivery of the horses to Bataan they find evidence of the real spy leader who is back in Texas of course.By the time this horse opera came out the Phillipines had already fallen and MacArthur was in Australia vowing that 'I shall return'. Not on horseback though. In reading about the Phillipine campaign before the fall of Corregidor and the return in 1944 I don't recall reading about any horses. Certainly if those poor animals from Texas actually made it to the Phillipines they probably were eaten by the starving troops on Bataan. It staggers me watching some of the vintage World War II era films especially from the Poverty Row studios what claptrap they were peddling to the public. Texas To Bataan is some of the finest vintage claptrap I've ever seen from that era.