weezeralfalfa One of 51 westerns by Republic, in the late '30s and early '40s, under the banner of The 3 Mesquiteers: a combination of mesquite and musketeers. The identity of the 3 actors varied. John Wayne was in only 8 of them, including this one. With a run time of only 55 min., it packed in a lot of scheming and action. It's an early example of the direction of George Sherman of B westerns. He would eventually, switch to Columbia, and then Universal, always almost exclusively directing B westerns. Here, Wayne as Stony, Ray Corrigan as Tucson, and Max Trehune as Lullaby are the 3Ms. The latter occasionally got out his dummy, Elmer, to practice some ventriloquism...... The screenplay differs from the usual rustlers, gold thieves or range war. Here, they get involved in trying to stop the outward smuggling of a rare mineral, monium, that can easily be converted into a new type of poisonous gas, for warfare. Doreen McKay, as Ann, is much more than just a token female presence. She's a Secret Service undercover agent, trying to determine who the leaders of this illegal export are. When her partner, Frank, is killed by foreign agent Paul, she suggests Stony be her new partner. He has a price on his head for his said role in Frank's and Paul's deaths. If Stony works out well as her partner, she will drop the charges against him. Stony is given a new name, and a slight disguise . He brazenly gets in the stockroom for the monium, posing as the foreign agent, but is eventually recognized by Gordon: head of the storage facility, as a fake. The monium is loaded onto a series of covered wagons for transport to an awaiting ship across the border. Stony is tied up and put in the last one of these wagons, for an unknown fate. From a hill, Tucson, Lullaby and Ann see Stony put in the wagon. Ann goes for help from the border patrol cavalry. Meanwhile, Tucson and Lullaby sneak up on the wagons and disable the drivers, freeing Stony. They redirect their wagon, and another chases them. Somehow, their wagon catches fire, so they get on the horses and unhitch the wagon, which goes over a cliff. Later, they have a perch on a hill above the wagon trail, close to the international border. They fire at the wagons, hoping to stop them from crossing the border. Eventually , the cavalry arrives and finishes the job......Generally, an exciting western, even thought the main plot device: stopping the shipment of monium is purely imaginary.

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.

bsmith5552 "Pals of the Saddle" is the first of eight Three Mesquiteer series westerns that John Wayne made for Republic's 1938-39 season. During this time, "Stagecoach" would be released, and the rest, as they say, is history.Comparing this film to some of his earlier efforts, one can see how far Wayne had developed his on-screen presence. He appeared much more confident and more at ease. In one scene he even impersonates a grizzled and hokey prospector complete with old clothes and whiskers. As was the case in many of the Mesquiteer films, this one is set in "modern" (the late 30s) times.In this outing he joins fellow Mesquiteers Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Max Terhune as "Stoney Brooke" in an effort to foil the evil doers plans to smuggle banned war materials out of the country to an unnamed foreign power to manufacture poison gas. At this juncture, America was still selling its neutrality in respect of the European conflict.The film is still quite entertaining and is enhanced by Wayne's performance. I was a little disappointed not to see any of Republic's familiar roster of bad guys in the picture. The supporting cast was for me totally unrecognizable. Anyway, Stoney Brooke is a long way from "Singin" Sandy Saunders.

Michael O'Keefe Remember Saturday mornings at the movies? This is a perfect example of the memories. Almost an hour of good guys, bad guys, pretty gal in trouble and gun play. Three saddle pals stop foreign spies from smuggling a dangerous chemical into Mexico. The chemical is used to make poison gas. Fast horses and stray bullets travel with the familiar generic background music.John Wayne, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan and Max Terhune are the saddle pals. Doreen McKay is the government agent that needs help catching the bad guys.