Boot Hill Bandits

During the course of The Three Mesquiteer films by Republic, stars who played the three leads in the series changed often. Eventually, two of the later stars, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune, got into a dispute with the studio and left for Monogram Pictures. There, they made virtually identical films as The Range Busters. Unlike the Mesquiteer films, the make-up of the trio didn't vary for most of the run, with Corrigan, Terhune (along with his idiotic dummy, Elmer) and Dusty King played the leads. Sadly, in the final third of the series, the studio began messing with this formula...adding other folks to the lineup. "Boot Hill Bandits" is one of the first 2/3 of the films...with the usual Range Busters.

Early in the story, some baddie comes gunning for Corrigan...and the locals are scared of the gunman. But Corrigan is a Range Buster, so you know he'll defeat this jerk. As a result, he's made the town marshal and soon the bossman of the baddies decides to have him killed so that he'll be able to hijack the payroll with impunity. But Corrigan isn't killed and pretends that he is...so he and the other Range Busters can covertly investigate and figure out who is behind all the naughtiness in town.

This represents one of the demonically possessed episodes of the series. What I mean by this is that there is a scene where Max Terhune's dummy, Elmer, moves without anyone touching him! He moves his lips and backtalks a baddie as Max is standing across the room from them! I never understood why they had this dummy in the films...but in a few the dummy talked and moved on it's own. Nightmare fodder!

Aside from needing an exorcist, the film is pretty good...one of the better and more enjoyable installments of the series.