Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

JohnHowardReid 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!.

Michael_Elliott Pals of the Saddle (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The first of eight Three Mesquiteer films John Wayne made for Republic from 1938-39. In the film, Wayne is accused of murder so he and the two others must try and clear his name while bringing down bad guys trying to sell poison gas. This is one of the better films in the series that I've seen. Wayne is his usual self, although he certainly wasn't the legend he was to become. The story movies pretty fast at 55-minutes and the supporting cast adds nice support. The fight scenes are all pretty well done.

bkoganbing Pals of the Saddle find the Three Mesquiteers getting involved with a group of war profiteers in the time before World War I. Somebody has the bright idea to smuggle something called Monium out of the USA in violation of the Neutrality Act for use to make poison gas. People in 1938 still remembered the horror of poison gas used in the war and also recently by Mussolini in his invasion and takeover of Ethiopia. That made it a topical film and gave it a dimension we can't appreciate today.The bad guys use a salt mine as a cover and chlorides are what makes up salt. Why the scriptwriters were concocting some fictitious element called Monium to use when they could have just as easily said chlorine which was in the some of the poison gas used in World War I is beyond me.Doreen McKay is an undercover U.S. Secret Service agent who gets Wayne involved in her investigation when her partner is killed. Wayne takes the partner's place and nearly gets himself done in. Good thing Corrigan and Terhune are around. There's an exciting shoot out at the end as the Mesquiteers stop the wagon train of Monium from crossing the border. This was Wayne's first Mesquiteer film and it certainly was a step up from his Monogram films of the middle thirties. He and Doreen McKay have an interesting relationship, sort of like what Roy Rogers and Dale Evans had in some of their Republic Pictures.Pals of the Saddle is not however the best of Wayne's Mesquiteer films. Still it's entertaining and will please fans of the eternal Duke.

Mesquiteer 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.