bkoganbing I'm sure this particular Three Mesquiteer film resonated well with people in the dust bowl. Though it's not The Grapes Of Wrath, Gunsmoke Ranch is about people dispossessed from their land and at the mercy of one ruthless conman.People have been flooded out of their homes in the Mississippi Valley and have headed west for a new start as they've taken an option on land in the far west. Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan, and Max Terhune however know the man behind the scheme and its Kenneth Harlan who they know to be a conman. Harlan runs true to form and when the new arrivals have made sufficient improvements he plans to sell the land to the state for a new dam and he can get a lot more back on improved land.I'm sure that every farmer who was dispossessed of his land due to flood or drought or whatever wanted to kill Harlan who watched this film in 1937. Very rarely do B westerns deal with modern relevant topics and this one is not only good but a rarity.

classicsoncall Well you've heard it said before, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. In this case, flooded out landowners are offered the opportunity for 'Free Ranches - No Money Down - Twenty Years to Pay' by the unscrupulous Phineas T. Flagg (Kenneth Harlan) if they pack up and head for Gunsmoke Valley, Arizona. Right off the bat, the terms 'free' and 'twenty years to pay' seem mutually exclusive, but what the heck, you've got to have a story in here somewhere.For Three Mesquiteers fans, this one also offers a bit of a head scratcher when Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune) walks into a general store and buys his dummy Elmer, seemingly for the first time. Actually, Elmer was around since their first picture, even if Terhune wasn't. Syd Saylor portrayed Lullaby in the very first Mesquiteers film, and was then replaced by Terhune for a very long stretch of twenty one pictures. "Gunsmoke Ranch" was the sixth film in the fifty one movie franchise.Besides Lullaby and Elmer, there was some additional comic relief provided here by a couple of characters named Oscar and Elmer Twiddlebaum, though one might question their effectiveness. Oscar (Ed Platt) was just plain hokey, and Elmer (Lou Fulton) did a stuttering gimmick that appears rather demeaning today. I couldn't help thinking that Elmer might have been the inspiration for Warner Brothers' Porky Pig; if you close your eyes and listen you'd swear you were hearing the cartoon.For all their trouble in trying to warn the newly arrived citizens of Gunsmoke Valley, you would think the Mesquiteers would have been given a warm reception, but instead, the town folk stand by their benefactor Flagg. It'll take at least another half hour for the boys to whip things into gear to save the new town of Three Score and Ten from their own intransigence. It all comes to a head in a fairly wild finale with your traditional shoot 'em up and some well staged action sequences. B Western fans will recognize the guiding hand of Yakima Canutt behind the exciting stunt work, who also doubles as Flagg henchman Spider.

Michael Morrison Watching this movie at classiccinemaonline.com is probably not the best way to see it, but it beats the heck out of not seeing it.My connection (DSL) created some jumpiness, but there was still a lot of quality visible, from a story by the great Oliver Drake, to directing by the equally great Joseph Kane.Of course the Three Mesquiteers, the almost original threesome (Terhune, Corrigan, Livingston), are nearly always watchable, so the ingredients are there for a very good movie.To be honest, I rated it higher than I felt what I saw deserved, with my jumpy connection and the abysmal attempts at "comedy," but, still, it's the Mesquiteers and Drake and Kane, and some great stunt work (the unsurpassed Yakima Canutt) and great camera angles, and what was apparently great stock footage in spots, and an exciting score by the great Raoul Kraushaar.With all that, it is definitely a must-see for western fans, for Republic fans, and for Mesquiteers fans. And for Kraushaar fans, including me.

Snow Leopard This 'Three Mesquiteers' feature is a fair B-Western, rather routine, and with quite a low-budget look to it, but watchable. It has generally likable, if ordinary, characters, and the story holds some interest. It has some lighter moments and just enough action to keep it moving along.The story has the 'Mesquiteers' running across a new town that is being built to help out some settlers who have been displaced by a flood. The trio start to suspect that something might not be what it seems, so they stick around to look into things, and the action proceeds from there, with some occasional humor (much of it from Max Terhune). Some of it works, and some of it doesn't really come off. Overall, there's not too much that's either especially good or especially bad about this one.