The Night Riders (1939)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Memorable, crazy movie

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely brilliant

Another Three Mesquiteers oater starring John Wayne. This is one of the more memorable entries in this generally unremarkable series. What makes this one noteworthy is the Mesquiteers (Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, Max Terhune) donning hoods and capes that look disturbingly similar to the Ku Klux Klan and leading night raids against a con artist (George Douglas) who has used a phony land deed to set himself up as a dictator over local ranchers. As with the rest of these low budget Republic westerns, this is barely interesting as a time-passer. Having John Wayne in it makes it mildly more interesting. The faux-KKK angle makes this a curio worthy of discussion, but certainly doesn't improve the entertainment value any. This was Duke's first film released after his breakthrough role in Stagecoach. Sadly it would be a couple more years before he was able to leave these simplistic action-heavy quickie westerns behind.

Confession: I nearly always find early b-Westerns more or less enjoyable, there's usually a lot of pleasant easy familiarity and a lot of dated stuff that can or should be forgiven. Just switch off the analysin'. John Wayne made approximately one million of these swift potboilers before he made his name – the same year as Night Riders. Even good old Gene Autry didn't make as many.Baddies forge old document proving the legality of their claim to thirteen million acres of land – they promise fairness to the tenants but deliver harshness, endless taxes and death instead. How very like all politicians always! Wayne and his two sidekicks object to this and begin a fightback as mysterious caped crusaders – Los Capaqueros replacing The Three Mesquiteers. It's the usual stuff, sub-Zorro fisticuffs and shootouts complete with self conscious melodrama: therefore all I'd hoped for, nothing more. Wayne's cohorts Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune kept on mining the b-picture vein throughout the '40's while Wayne began his climb to superstardom and the making of many movie classics. Highly enjoyable non-serious time-filler!

Talbot Pierce, a notorious card shark, is thrown from a riverboat and washes on shore at an inn which also houses a forger Hazelton. Hazelton has the idea of using a forged Spanish land grant that would say Don Luis de Serrano (Pierce) would own 13 million acres of land in Arizona. The courts decide it is authentic and Don Luis takes over the land and charges high taxes, cattle tolls, and rent for his land, and then evicts them after he taken everything they have including the 3M ranch. Stony, Tucson, and Lullaby decide to strike against Don Luis by riding as white robed vigilantes Los Capaqueroes, where they hold up Don Luis' tax collectors and give the money to the next person to be evicted from the valley. While this causes confusion, the Three Mesquiteers lack the evidence that will cause an investigation. They decide to take jobs from Don Luis as hunters for Los Capaqueroes, but Stony recognizes Don Luis as Pierce, but it is too late as our heroes are discovered to be the vigilantes and sentenced to be shot. Decent B western, but nothing really new and exciting considering there was never any chemistry between Wayne and Corrigan & Terhune and it shows here. I do like the Los Capaqueroes idea but the film lacks much action and the resolution to the film is sort of a downer. Remade w/ Don Barry as Arizona Raiders and again (loosely) w/ Vincent Price in the Baron of Arizona. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.

The Three Mesquiteers were able to jump through time from one film to another. In The Night Riders, newspaper headlines are used in transitions between scenes, and those newspapers show dates in 1881. So, there are no automobiles or radios in this one, just horses and telegraphs.There is a nice plot that sets up the action for The Night Riders. A corrupt former engraver for the U.S. Mint and a crooked riverboat gambler team up to pull off a land swindle using a forged Spanish land grant. The forger, Hazleton, orchestrates everything by having Talbot, the gambler and former actor, pose as Don Luis Serrano. Immediately they start taxing and evicting the settlers on 13,000,000 acres of land.The Don's henchmen and an apprehensive sheriff run the Mesquiteers off of their ranch, and the Mesquiteers see others dealt the same fate. Stony makes a perfect John Wayne speech about what America means, and writes to President Garfield for help. The President is bound by the laws of the country and cannot help. Not content to let the Don take every settler's land, the Mesquiteers become Los Capaqueros, three masked riders that rob the tax collectors and give the money to ranchers facing eviction. As Los Capaqueros, the Mesquiteers accidentally meet with President Garfield, who is on a cross country tour. Garfield promises his help if the Mesquiteers can find evidence of something illegal. Eventually the Don raises an army to search for Los Capaqueros, and the Mesquiteers find a way to get themselves included so they can infiltrate the Don's compound. Stony is determined to prove that the Don is really Talbot. Everything ends with justice being served in Mesquiteers fashion.I have not seen all of the Mesquiteers films, but I have never seen a "3 M Ranch." Perhaps it only existed for this one film as a plot device. In almost every other movie the Mesquiteers have been some kind of federal agents, but in The Night Riders they have absolutely no connection with law enforcement at all. I must assume that the script was written without the Three Mesquiteers in mind, and adapted to fit the team later. The Night Riders has a cast with many of the B western regulars. It was fun looking for all the familiar faces. Glenn Strange and Horace Murphy are uncredited, but they both have more significant parts than the credited Tom London. Kermit Maynard had been a leading man shortly before this film. Sadly, he was destined to play supporting parts from around the time this movie was made onward. It was interesting to see Tom Tyler as one of the bad guys, because within a couple of years he would play the part of Stony Brooke through the end of the Mesquiteers series.