Review: The Night Riders

The Three Mesquiteers (John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) get thrown off their land by gambler and fake Spanish nobleman Don Luis de Serrano (George Douglas) using a trumped-up land grant and evicting anyone who can’t pay the ridiculous tax. Our heroes mask up and get to doing something about it.

 

Around the same time he made “Stagecoach”, John Wayne starred in what were essentially several western serials all under the banner of “The Three Mesquiteers”. This 1939 film from director George Sherman (who later directed Duke in the underrated “Big Jake” in 1971) was Wayne’s fifth of these films (several were also made without him) and is a perfectly harmless, perfectly forgettable affair. Primitive, basic stuff it doesn’t even run an hour long. It actually seems more befitting the silent era. However, for Wayne completists and film buffs like me there’s still merit here if you can manage to track it down. My enjoyment was more from a cinematic history perspective, and even then it’s more that I was glad to see it so that I can say I’ve seen it rather than really getting invested in the film itself.

 

It’s got lots of fist fights, and I bet if you were a kid in the early 1940s you would’ve enjoyed the heck out of this before discovering more substantial westerns as you matured. Seriously, for a less than 60 minute film there’s at least 3 fistfights in 30 of those minutes. In fact, what the film most resembles is one of those kids adventure TV shows like “Skippy” or “Flipper” except instead of a kangaroo or dolphin it’s John Wayne and two other dudes rounding up the baddies. John Wayne shows a fair amount of presence and charisma here, almost in his fully-formed Duke state. He seems a much more comfortable fit in western surrounds than his comrades. I will say he and his fellow Mesquiteers (not to be confused with the Three Musketeers) look awfully silly in their costumes, kinda like Klansman on Halloween night. Also, at one point one of the Mesquiteers shows off his ventriloquist skills for God knows why. I also enjoyed the action, far and away the best thing here. 

 

On the plus side, this C-western isn’t long enough to really bore you. On the downside, it’s not long enough to really be much of a movie at all. A curio for film buffs and John Wayne fans, but you won’t remember much 10 seconds after. Based on characters created by William Colt MacDonald, the screenplay is by Betty Burbidge (an actress in the silent era who wrote many C-tier westerns) and Stanley Roberts of all people (“The Caine Mutiny”).

 

Rating: C+