Heroes of the Saddle

After a good friend of theirs dies in a rodeo accident, the Three Mesquiteers take it upon themselves to try to care for his young daughter "Peggy Bell" (Patsy Parsons), Unfortunately, they are soon informed that, since they don't own a home in which to properly raise her, that they cannot legally adopt her and therefore must turn her over to the local orphanage. Naturally, although somewhat disheartened by this news, they promise to check in on her from time to time to make sure that she is being suitably cared for. To that effect, when they learn that she has been recently hurt in an accident and needs an expensive medical device to help in her recovery, they promptly set out to raise the necessary money to make it happen. What they don't realize, however, is that the people in charge of the orphanage have been embezzling money from the state and, because of that, set out to ensure that the Three Mesquiteers never set foot on their property again--by whatever means become necessary. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film started off reasonably well but somehow morphed into something more similar to a Shirley Temple film than a typical Three Mesquiteers movie. Not that I dislike Shirley Temple films of course, but it was just a bit too cute for a Western of this type. At least, that was how it seemed to me. Be that as it may, while I certainly don't consider this to be a bad film by any means, I don't think it was nearly as good as some of the others in this series, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.