''The Three Mesquiteers'' is the umbrella title for a

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...

series of 51 American Western

B-movies A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

released between 1936 and 1943. The films, featuring a trio of Old West adventurers, was based on a series of Western novels by

William Colt MacDonald Allan William Colt MacDonald (December 2, 1891 – March 27, 1968), who used the name William Colt MacDonald for his writing, was an American writer of westerns born in Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of ...

. The eponymous trio, with occasional variations, were called Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith and Lullaby Joslin.

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Go ...

, who played Stony Brooke in eight of the films in 1938 and 1939, was the best-known actor in the series. Other leads included

Bob Livingston Robert Linlithgow Livingston Jr. (born April 30, 1943) is an American lobbyist and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1977 to 1999. A Republican, he was chosen as Newt Gingrich's successor as Speaker of the U.S. ...

, Ray "Crash" Corrigan,

Max Terhune Max Terhune (February 12, 1891 – June 5, 1973) was an American film actor born in Franklin, Indiana. He appeared in nearly 70 films, mostly B-westerns, between 1936 and 1956. Among these, Terhune starred in ''The Three Mesquiteers'' and ...

, Bob Steele, Rufe Davis and

Tom Tyler Tom Tyler (born Vincent Markowski; August 9, 1903 – May 1, 1954) was an American actor known for his leading roles in low-budget Western films in the silent and sound eras, and for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the 1941 ...

Background

wrote a series of novels about The Three Mesquiteers, beginning with '' The Law of 45's'' in 1933. The name "Mesquiteer" was a play on words, referring to

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under gr ...

, a plant common in the Western states, and the characters of the 1844 Alexander Dumas novel ''

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' (french: Les Trois Mousquetaires, links=no, ) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight f ...

''. The film series blended the traditional Western period with more modern elements, a technique used in other B-Western films and serials. Toward the end of the series, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the trio of cowboys were opposing

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

. One film, '' Outlaws of Sonora'' (1938), has a revisionist theme as an early example of the Outlaw/Gunfighter sub-genre.

Previous non-Republic films

* ''

The Law of the 45's ''The Law of the 45's'' (also known as ''The Mysterious Mr. Sheffield'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1935 American Western film directed by John P. McCarthy. The screenplay was based on the 1933 novel of the same name by William Colt MacDonald ...

'' (1935, Normandy Pictures) starred Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as Tucson "Two Gun" Smith and Al. St. John as Stony Brooke; there was no Lullaby Joslin in the film. * ''

Powdersmoke Range ''Powdersmoke Range'' is a 1935 black-and-white Western film directed by Wallace Fox starring Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Guinn Williams and Bob Steele. It is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by William Colt MacDonald with characters wh ...

'' (1935,

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

) starred Harry Carey as Tucson Smith, Hoot Gibson as Stony Brooke, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as Lullaby Joslin.

The Mesquiteers

In the Republic series, the cast list varied but always featured a trio of cowboys. The original and most frequently recurring Mesquiteer characters were: * Stony Brooke
(played by

in 29 films,

in 8 films, and

in 13 films) * Tucson Smith
(played by Ray Corrigan in 24 films, and by Bob Steele in 20 films) * Lullaby Joslin
(played by Syd Saylor in one film,

in 21 films, Rufe Davis in 14 films, and by

Jimmie Dodd James Wesley Dodd (March 28, 1910 – November 10, 1964) was an American actor, singer and songwriter best known as the master of ceremonies for the popular 1950s Walt Disney television series ''The Mickey Mouse Club,'' as well as the write ...

in six films) Other members of the trio over the entire series were: * Ralph Byrd as Larry Smith (one film, replacing Bob Livingston, injured during filming) * Raymond Hatton as Rusty Joslin (nine films) * Duncan Renaldo as Rico Rinaldo (seven films) * Kirby Grant as Tex Reilly (one film, '' Red River Range'', pretended to be Stony Brooke while Stony Brooke was under cover) Stars in supporting roles at various times included: * Noah Beery * Henry Brandon * Louise Brooks *

Yakima Canutt Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt (November 29, 1895 – May 24, 1986) was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing t ...

Chief Thundercloud Victor Daniels (April 12, 1899 – December 1, 1955), known professionally as Chief Thundercloud, was an American character actor in Westerns. He is noted for being the first actor to play the role of Tonto, the Lone Ranger's Native-American c ...

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

(billed as Rita Cansino, her real name) *

Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned over five decades, she was nominated ...

Carole Landis Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...

* George Montgomery *

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

(billed as Dick Weston) *

Robert Warwick Robert Warwick (born Robert Taylor Bien, October 9, 1878 – June 6, 1964) was an American stage, film and television actor with over 200 film appearances. A matinee idol during the silent film era, he also prospered after the introduction ...

Hank Worden Hank Worden (born Norton Earl Worden; July 23, 1901 – December 6, 1992) was an American cowboy-turned-character actor who appeared in many Westerns, including many John Ford films such as '' The Searchers'' and the TV series '' The Lone ...

Actress Lois Collier was sometimes called the Fourth Mesquiteer because seven of the movies featured her as the female lead. Max Terhune, when playing Lullaby Joslin, would sometimes appear with a

ventriloquist dummy Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

called Elmer.

Reception

The ''Three Mesquiteers'' series was extremely popular at the time of its release. The series was the only one of its kind to be specifically named and ranked in contemporary polls of the top Western film stars. For example, from 1937 to the end of the series in 1943, the '' Motion Picture Herald'' consistently ranked the series in its top 10, reaching a peak of fifth place in 1938, when a pre-''

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

'' John Wayne was the series lead.

Influence

The success of the series led to many "trigger trio" imitators at other studios. The first was '' The Range Busters'' (1940–43) from

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

, which starred original Mesquiteer Ray "Crash" Corrigan as the character "Crash" Corrigan. Monogram also released ''The Rough Riders'' (1941–42), again poaching a Mesquiteer in the form of Raymond Hatton, and ''The Trail Blazers'' (1943–44).

Producers Releasing Corporation Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestr ...

produced two similar series, ''The Texas Rangers'' (1942–45) and ''The Frontier Marshals'' (1942). On television, NBC broadcast '' Laredo'' from 1965 to 1967. It starred Neville Brand, William Smith and Peter Brown as a trio of Texas Rangers.

Films

produced 51 films in ''The Three Mesquiteers'' series between 1936 and 1943:

References

External links

Keywords 'three-mesquiteers-series' at IMDb

{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Mesquiteers, The 1930s Western (genre) films 1940s Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films American black-and-white films Republic Pictures films Western (genre) film series 1940s English-language films 1930s English-language films